


And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy

by FullParagon



Series: Meekverse [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Lovecraftian, paragon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-09-14
Packaged: 2017-12-26 14:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/966961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullParagon/pseuds/FullParagon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to a shift in turian and quarian patrols, first contact for humanity is friendly; Rael'Zorah and Hannah Shepard become friends, as do their species. But the galaxy is not a safe place, and schisms develop when the Council steps in. As humanity finds new allies among the stars, something darker stirs. The Meek must beware, for it is nearly harvest time. AU, lots of worldbuilding</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.  
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.  
For want of a horse the rider was lost.  
For want of a rider the message was lost.  
For want of a message the battle was lost.  
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.  
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

But what if there had been a nail?

HWS* Overlook

Lieutenant Adrian Victus sighed. More border patrol assignments out in the boonies. He glanced at his reports. Relay 314. A pointless patrol really, there were no species out there, and who would be dumb enough to activate a relay? He picked up another report and frowned. Migrant fleet activity in the area. At least buzzing the quarians sounded interesting. With a few jots, Lieutenant Victus altered his patrol course, well within his power as the commander of the scout vessel.

And thus, history was changed. For want of a patrol.

*Hierarchy War Ship

MFBV* Belari

"So, what do you think XO Gerral?"

"Oh, damned if I know Captain Zorah. We could tweak the metal heads mandibles again, but there are some funny readings over by 314. Might be worth checking out."

Captain Rael'Zorah vas Belari sat back in his chair and studied the readouts. "Could be nothing though Gerral, just background radiation."

"True, but ever since we've move into this sector, those blips have been turning up regularly. It could be something. Maybe the metalheads are secretly activating a relay without telling anyone. At any rate, its something the fleet should know, especially since that's only one jump from our main formation."

Rael glanced up at Han's gleaming eyes. Both he and his XO were famous for the trouble they had caused along the border in the last few years, and invisible line that "suit rats" were just not supposed to toe. But there had been good salvage and even a few covert mining operations that the team of Zorah and Gerral had pulled off, and it had gotten Rael his own ship and Han into a position where he was soon to assume command of his own vessel. Things were looking up for the two young quarians carreer wise. But that meant no more adventures soon.

Grinning and winking his eyes behind his suit's mask, Rael nodded to his XO. "Alright, 314 it is. Who knows, maybe we'll catch the metal heads with their pants down."

*Migrant Fleet Battle Vessel

SSV* Carl Jung

Senior Chief Hannah Shepard took a moment to lift her son to the glass so he could get a good look at the Relay.

"What's that mommy?"

"It's a mass relay, a new one Johnny."

"Why's it not spinning like the other ones?"

"It's not on yet, that's what we're trying to do.

"Why's it off?"

"Well, the protheans must have turned it off when they left. Don't worry, we'll get it back on."

"Will there be aliens on the other side?"

"Maybe. But I bet they'll be nice aliens. Maybe you can make friends with one of them."

"Yeah! I want an alien friend. He would be my bestest friend."

"Well, what if it's a girl alien?"

"Well, we could still be friends as long as she likes dinosaurs. Do you like dinosaurs mommy?"

"Of course I do Johnny! Why, just in the last few weeks, I've learned all about velociraptors."

"Yeah! They head feathers, and ate meat, and walked like this!" Johnny scrambled down and practiced his dinosaur walk, growling all the way.

Hannah smiled and then scooped her son up, blowing on his chest to make a loud farting noise as he squealed with pleasure. It was nice working for the Alliance, she had gotten maternity leave, then a posting on a medical ship, the SSV Carl Jung, where she had personal quarters for both herself and her son. She was even paid a bit extra to see the effect of growing up on a space ship was having on the young Shepard. Which was nice as a single parent, Hannah didn't even really know who Johnny's father was, and had never done the DNA testing to figure it out. He was all hers.

Just then, the klaxon sounded and Johnny started crying. Hannah picked up her son and took off at a dead run.

"Attention, all hands," Captain Barak Muhammad announced, "we have detected an unknown vessel entering the system. Possible CODE ABLE. Stand by for further orders."

Hannah hurried to the nursery and handed Johnny over to the caretaker, then left the still balling toddler and ran to her station at the hanger. She wasn't on for this shift, but the plan for first contact, CODE ABLE, called for every serviceperson to be at their stations. He crew was standing by, and Hannah swallowed as she waited for further orders.

"Maybe it's just a lost civilian craft?" Jones, one of Hannah's technicians ventured.

"And maybe pigs fly. Get it together Jones." Hannah snapped.

As they waited, Hannah whispered a silent prayer for her son, that the new world he found himself in would be a kind one. And that perhaps, these new aliens would like dinosaurs. Like the small, plastic toy Hannah still had in her pocket.

*Systems Service Vessel

MFBV Belari

"Captain, what do you make of this?" Lieutenant Turl'Enarh asked, putting up new data on the captain's feed.

Rael frowned. "It's not the turians."

"Not salarian, asari, volus, or any other kind of registered vessel." Han muttered from his own station. "What are they?"

"New species?" Turl offered. "That could explain all the strange signals we've been getting from this area.

"Hmm. Maybe." Rael allowed. "Take us in, on a very obvious elliptical. Vent some extra radiation, use a twos pattern. Act like we are friendlies."

"Are you sure sir? Council law says-" Turl began.

"Damn the Council!" Rael roared, and most of his bridge officers nodded with him. "I'm not reporting something like this to the turians! We're not even a council species anymore! If I report to anyone, I'll report to the Admiralty, but this is my ship, and under quarian law I may initiate first contact!"

"Yes sir!" Berga'Otorus in navigation cheered, and the Belari began her slow dance forward.

SSV Hampton Roads

"Admiral, sir, whatever it is, it's making damn certain we know it's here. It's taking its sweet time, if the initial accel we charted is anything to go by."

Rear Admiral Steven Hackett frowned at his readout. That was accurate enough. Whatever the alien ship was, it was going rather slowly forward, venting all kinds of emissions on all bands in a steady, two pulse pattern.

"Signal the fleet. I want all our ships mimicking that vent pattern, and broadcasting friendly messages on all frequencies. Alert FleetCom. Confirm CODE ABLE."

MFBV Balari

"They're responding Captain. The ships are moving slowly away from the relay and broadcasting on a number of frequencies. It's not in any the standard protocols, but the information is clearly organized and contains a language."

Rael grinned and looked over at Han, who nodded and winked. "That's good news Turl. Maintain our approach. Make for the largest vessel, that one out masses us by several tones. We don't want them to think we're hostile."

SSV Hampton Roads

"They're making for the Carl Jung sir, but they don't appear to be making any aggressive moves."

Hackett nodded. It made sense, the Jung was the largest ship in his little formation. As far as the aliens knew, it was the flag ship, and the best armed. In reality, the hospital ship was totally unarmed, but it did boast some of the toughest barriers Earth could make.

"Maintain formation and heading. Let the Jung know the ball is in their court. They'll be making first contact."

SSV Carl Jung

"Attention, all hands. CODE ABLE is confirmed. The alien ship is making for us. All docking crews, enter a state of readiness for CODE ABLE."

Hannah sucked in her breath and felt like vomiting. The aliens were coming here, to her ship. Where her son was. She prayed that they would be friendly.

"Alright people, enviro-suits on! We don't know what kind of nastiness those aliens have, and you're ugly enough as it is Sung! I don't want any accidents, we're about to make history!"

"Yes ma'am!" Her crew responded, and Hannah nodded. She could still use her Chief's Voice, that was good.

The minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness. Hannah couldn't help but think of Johnny, what me must be feeling. Somehow, the plastic dinosaur had ended up in her envirosuits grip, and it was comforting. Whatever entered her hanger, Hannah would be ready. Nothing was going to hurt her son.

MFBV Balari

"They're turning, that's a docking bay there. We can take the shuttle over." Han stated.

Rael nodded. "Let's do it. Berga, you have the bridge. Han, you're with me. Just the two of us, don't want to scare them."

"Like anyone is ever scared of quarians."

"Let's hope so. These new comers could be allies, and the fleet needs some of those."

Rael's heart seemed to want to jump out of his suit as he made his way to the shuttle. He thought of his wife, Kleeah, and their baby daughter, Tali, just six months old. Maybe this would be their first steps back to the homeworld. Or even a new one.

"Keelah Se'lai." Rael whispered.

"Keelah Se'lai." Han agreed. "Let's do this."

SSV Carl Jung- Hannah Shepard

Hannah's crew stood ready, not sure of what to do as the alien shuttle slowly entered the Jung's mass effect fields and landed in the cleared space for it. The whole hanger held its breath as the door slowly opened, and two aliens walked out. They were both in full envirosuits, though of a different design then the humans wore. One was in a pinkish suit, the other a darker, more tan model, though they both appeared to be of similar make.

Captain Muhammad stepped forward, and to Hannah's eternal embarrassment, made the Vulcan greeting sign. The rest of it was mercifully according to the CODE ABLE script.

"Welcome. We are humanity, the sons and daughters of Earth. We come in peace, and ask the same in return."

Alien Vessel - Rael'Zorah

When the alien leader finished speaking, Rael raised his own hand in a gesture of peace. "I am Captain Rael'Zorah vas Balari, of the quarian migrant fleet. We come in peace, and wish to open relations between our peoples."

The aliens looked at each other, then the leader stepped forward and thumped his own chest with his strange, five fingered hand. "Barak Muhammad."

Rael pointed to the alien and answered, "Barak Muhammad."

Nodding, the alien indicated the other members of its species. "Humans."

"Quarians." Rael answered, indicating himself and Gerrel. Then he pointed to his own chest. "Rael'Zorah vas Balari."

The alien pointed and repeated Rael's named, then stepped forward, offering his hands. Recognizing a gesture similar to one the salarians used, Rael took the aliens hands in his own and squeezed lightly.

"Friends." He stated.

"Sadeakaty."

Looking at Han, Rael smiled and nodded. "Well, this seems to be going well."

"Yes, the seem pretty nice, for aliens. Even have on envirosuits."

Just then, one of the humans said something to Barak Muhammad. The alien leader said something back, then removed his suits helmet. Rael was a little disappointed, but then, you couldn't expect an alien species to have as weak an immune system as quarians did.

Barak said something, indicating Rael's suit. He shook his head. "No, we have to leave that on. Ours don't come off."

The alien's face screwed up a bit, but then he relaxed and nodded. Then Barak pointed to one of his subordinates, this one with what Rael guessed were milk glands of some sort, probably a female. The female said something back, then approached, slowly taking off her own suit.

SSV Carl Jung- Hannah Shepard

Slowly, Hannah approached the alien, the quarian, taking out a picture of her and Johnny. "My son." She slowly said, passing the photo to the alien.

Captain Barak nodded and smiled. "Good, good, show them what our children look like. It should provoke empathy."

Hannah didn't care what the experts called it, and she stared hard into the aliens strange glowing eyes. "My. Son." She said again, putting force behind the words. She didn't want there to be any doubt that if any harm came to Johnny, there would be hell to pay.

After a moment, the alien handed the photo back to Hannah, then activated a strange, orange hologram on its arm. After a few more taps, a vid of what had to be the alien, Rael, this time suitless, appeared. His skin, Rael looked like a he to Hannah, with close cropped hair and a wispy beard, was greyish, and the hair was a dark purple. In his arms, Rael held a tiny infant. The child appeared to be sleeping, and Rael's lips were parted in a smile as he gazed down at his offspring.

"Keelah Se'lai, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." The holo Rael whispered. Then the image stopped.

Rael pointed to the sleeping infant, and stated, "Il'hafi." There was iron in his voice. This was a man who would kill before he let anything happen to his child. That, Hannah could understand.

"For your 'Il'hafi,'" Hannah said, holding up the small plastic dinosaur.

Carefully, the alien took the toy in his three fingered grasp. "Edan. Il'hafi te'ul ven tefasa. Edan."

Hannah smiled and nodded, then started when Rael reached into the pouches at his belt and drew out a small, polished stone. It was etched with strange symbols, though they clearly represented something.

"Ya Il'hafa." Rael said, extending the stone to Hannah.

She took it gently, it was slightly warm to the touch, and sparkled with an inner light. "Thank you. My son will love this."

Rael nodded, and for a moment, Hannah and the quarian shared a complete understanding with each other. They had given each other gifts, not for themselves, but for their offspring. These aliens had come not to conquer or plunder, but in peace, with gifts for the children of humanity.

You've got a bright future ahead of you, Johnny. Hanna though. I found you a little alien who's going to love dinosaurs.

Because of the nail, the shoe stayed on.

Because of the shoe, the horse ran on.

Because of the horse, the rider did not fall.

Because of the rider, the message was delivered

Because of the message, the battle was won.

Because of the battle, the kingdom was saved.

Because of the kingdom, the world was changed.

Because of a nail.

And Because of that nail, the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy.


	2. Chapter 2

MFBV Belari - Hannah Shepard

"I don't like the funny clothes mommy." Johnny whined, tugging at the ill fitting envirosuit.

Hannah sighed and knelt down, clumsy in her own envirosuit. "Listen, if we want to go on the aliens ship, we have to wear this. Otherwise, we can't come on."

That had been one thing the quarians had been very clear on. Humans were welcome to look around the Belari, that was the name of the quarian ship, but they had to be in an envirosuit. Hannah was beginning to wonder if they ever took those silly things off, even though she had seen a vid of Rael without a suit. Rael had specifically made it clear that Johnny was invited over, and after discussing it with the Admiral and the other officers, Hannah had reluctantly agreed to take her son over. Hopefully, the quarians were not going to try anything.

"Johnny'Shepard. You want come?" Rael himself was standing just outside the human shuttle docked in the Belari's tiny bay.

Johnny looked up at the quarian and crossed his arms. "Only if you carry me."

Rael turned to Hannah. "Cah-ri?"

"Like this." Hannah leaned over and clumsily picked her son up, trying to find a good place to hold him.

"Ah. Carry. Elti. Child, like elti, carry. You come now?"

"Let's get a move on, Chief." Admiral Hackett said from behind Hannah, causing her further consternation.

"Aye aye Admiral." Gingerly, Hannah stepped off the ramp onto the Belari's deck.

"Is good?" Gerrel, the other alien Hannah knew asked.

"Is good." Hackett confirmed, motioning for the tour to continue.

Gerrel and Rael said something to several other quarians that were standing by, then led Hackett and a few of his officers off through the ship. Another quarian, this one a female Hannah guests from her breast like protuberances on the chest, came forward and nodded to Hannah.

"Berga'Otorus." The female said, pointing to herself. Then she pointed to the child flopped in Hannah's arms. "Joohnie'Sheepard?"

"My name is Johnny." The child replied, scrabbling out of Hannah's arms onto the deck. "You talk funny."

Berga squatted down on her haunches so that her glowing eyes were level with Johnny's. "Johnnie?"

Giggling, Johnny shook his head. "No! Johnny!"

"Ah, Johnny."

"Yep! You're Miss Bearga?"

"Berga. Berga'Otorus vas Belari."

"Berga!"

"Keesai!" Berga cheered then nodded up at Hannah. "Hannah'Sheepard?"

"Yes, that's my name. Hannah Shepard."

"Vas Caarl Juug?"

That Hannah didn't understand. "Vas, you all have that in your names? You're vas Belari, so is Rael and Gerrel."

Berga stood and spread her arms. "Belari. Vas Belari se'richii nar yk'li." The quarian pulled up her orange hologram and after a few keystrokes, an image of Berga working appeared. Then a sleeping Berga, an eating Berga, even a Berga fiddling with some yarn looking stuff with another quarian. The images faded, then Berga stamped her foot on the deck. "Belari. Berga vas Belari."

"It's your home?" Johnny asked, mesmerized by the quarians antics.

"Whoame?"

"Home, you know, where you eat and sleep and play and stuff." Johnny mimicked doing all those things.

"Home? Gi, Belari Berga home. Johnny nar Caarl Juug?" This was addressed to Hannah, with some pantomime of what clearly resembled Berga giving birth.

"Oh, no! I had Johnny on Arcturus station. He was born Arcturus," This she punctuated with more giving birth pantomime, " his home is the Carl Jung."

"Ah! Johnny'Shepard nar Arcturus! Hannah'Shepard vas Carl Jung?"

Hannah paused, obviously the nar and vas had deeper meaning, but she nodded her head. They could figure out the rest as they went along. "Yes, I think so. Hannah'Shepard vas Carl Jung nar Earth."

"Berga'Otorus vas Belari nar Rayya."

Berga clapped her hands and motioned for Hannah and Johnny to follower her. This time, there was no need to cajole the young boy to go with the quarian. Over the next few hours, Hannah and Berga did their best to teach each other English and the quarian language, with mixed results. There was a lot of laughing and exaggerated motions, drawings on a note pad Hannah had brought just for that purpose, and plenty of images on Berga's orange hologram.

Johnny was having the time of his life meanwhile, exploring all the nooks and crannies Berga would let him. Hannah quickly learned the quarian words for no, danger, and stay out, and Johnny did as well. Actually, the little boy seemed to be picking up quarian faster than his mother in some cases, though he was too busy clowning around for the quarians to be of much use.

"Ah, child, funny." Berga laughed, nodding to Johnny. "Later time, Berga make child. Mate home, live other ship." The quarian was speaking an odd mixture of English and quarian, though she was able to get her point across.

"They're a lot of work." Hannah laughed. "Messy. Smelly. But good. Love."

"Lovee?"

Hannah grabbed her squirming boy and touched her mask to his, holding him tightly for a moment. "Love." She repeated.

"Ah, hafa'zil Berga nodded. "Berga saa'zil Johnny. tai'zil Hannah."

"Hannah tai'zil Berga?"

The quarian nodded, and held out her hand. Hannah grasped and shook it. "Tai'zil."

MFBV Belari - Rael'Zorah

One thing Rael had to give the humans, they were almost as quick learners as a quarian, and just as curious. They seemed to want to examine everything, see whatever Rael had to show them. For security reasons, he didn't let the party near the engines or the weapon systems, but he showed them just about everything else. The older human, the one called Hackett, seemed to be willing to let his subordinates do all the examining while he kept his opinions to himself. Rael was more than ready to bet the man was a senior captain, or even an Admiral, based on the way Barak deferred to him.

There had been a couple times when Hackett seemed upset when certain systems were declared off limits, but Rael wasn't sure. These humans had fairly similar body language to quarians, though it was subtlety different enough that he couldn't be quite certain. When the tour was over, Hackett was the one who extended his hand and shook it, showing his teeth in a grin. Rael didn't have to work to figure out what that meant, it was similar enough to an expression the asari used.

"Thank you. Friend." Hackett managed, his keelish rather rough.

"Welcome, friend." Rael replied, in human that wasn't much better.

With that, the humans left, including the one called Hannah and her child. The boy waved excitedly to Berga, who returned the gesture as the humans shuttle door closed.

"Well captain, I must say, I rather like those two humans." Berga laughed once the shuttle had taken off.

Rael grunted. "Yes, they do seem nice enough, at least for now. Time will tell if they mean it."

"That older one, Hackett," Gerrel mused, "he seemed to be in charge. Not such a bad sort, he kept his people out of trouble when they wanted to poke at things they shouldn't and treated us like a respected elder."

Nodding, Rael turned and started back to the bridge. "They're children, for all intents and purposes. Still getting their feet wet."

"Do you think there's a possibility for peace with them, Captain? A trading alliance perhaps?" Berga asked as they made their way through the ship.

"Too soon to tell. But I think it likely. At the very least, their children are cute. That little human, Joenie I think it was?"

"Johnny'Shepard nar Arcturus, Captain." Berga supplied.

"Yes, Johnny, reminds me of myself at that age. Always moving, into everything."

"Probably not as much of a trouble maker though. Sir." Gerrel teased.

"You didn't know me back then XO. So you can't prove anything."

The quarians all got a chuckle out of that one. Rael had more than earned his reputation as a trouble maker along the turian border, and more than a few of the metal heads would love to get their talons on the Belari and her captain.

"What should our course of action be, sir?" Rael asked as they stepped onto the bridge.

Sitting in his chair, Rael drummed his fingers on the arm rests for a moment. "Hmm. Send a short message to the flotilla. Give them the short version, first contact with new species. Possibly friendly. Will give additional details when possible."

"Sending it now captain."

Leaning back, Rael closed his eyes for a moment and thought of his family. Was he building a better future for them? He hoped so. Perhaps these humans could be of some use. Perhaps not. Either way, it hopefully wouldn't hurt to try.

SSV Hampton Roads - Hackett

"What did you make of them, Chief Rodgers?" Hackett asked his senior engineer as they sat in the Hampton Roads stateroom.

Rodgers shrugged. "Hard to say sir. They seem nice enough, but we don't really speak enough of their lingo yet to know for certain."

"What about their tech?"

"Honestly sir? It's strange. Most of what they have seems to beat to hell and gone of you ask me, but it's still much better than anything we have."

"Thoughts?" Hackett asked his officers. Most of them voiced opinions along the same lines. That confirmed what Hackett had already been thinking.

"That raises some questions. They seem like a professional outfit, and the ship was squared away and clean from what I saw. Not pirates I think, but there has to be a reason that ship has more layers of paint then an oak tree has rings."

More nods of agreement. "Sir, do you think it's possible they're rebels or terrorists of some sort?" That was Vasquez, Hackett's XO.

"Maybe they're cut off from resupply somehow." Captain Barak offered.

"All good theories, but just theories." Hackett rumbled. "For now, we stay friendly. I'm sending another report to Arcturus command. Just the facts. They appear friendly, they let us on their ship, their tech is used, but better then what we have. Recommend friendly negotiations. Anyone have anything else urgent to add?"

No one spoke.

"Right. I want men working with the quarians they sent over round the clock. Focus on learning their lingo. Chief Shepard and her boy did good today. Get them back over once they've had a full rest cycle. Dismissed."

SSV Carl Jung - Rael'Zorah

The more Rael saw of the human ship, the more he had to clamp down on his envy. It was crude in many ways, and clearly the product of a race that hadn't had long to develop their own mass effect technology. But it was the product of plenty of resources, that much was certain. True, there were a few patches, but all the welds were neat and precise. They had had plenty of spare parts to use, and the patches were all the same material as the original.

But that wasn't all Rael saw. He also saw a friendly people. Everyone was going out of their way to be nice on an occasion like this, but the humans seemed to be doing more than just paying the idea lip service. Take Hannah Shepard for instance. You didn't let just anyone hold your son, even if he was the first alien your race had ever seen.

Johnny Shepard was proving to have a remarkably wide keelish vocabulary for someone who had just started learning the day before.

"Pink." He was saying, pointing to Rael's colored stripes on his suit. "Pink." That time was in human.

"Pink." Rael repeated.

Johnny giggled, then leaned in close to Rael's helmet. "Pink girl color," the tiny human whispered, the covered his mouth and giggled some more.

"Pink Rael's color." Rael stated, making his voice as deep as it would go. "Pink manly for quarian."

"Johnny, boys pink too, sometimes." Hannah chided her son.

Rael shrugged. "Him OK. Just silly."

Hannah rolled her eyes, a gesture the humans seemed to favor above most. "Yes. Him very silly." Reaching out, Hannah took Johnny from Rael's arms. "Him also need nap. Say bye-bye to nice Rael."

"Mooooooommmmmmy! I'm not tired!" Johnny whined, confirming to all within hearing distance that it was indeed time for the little humans nap.

"Go with Ensign Gail. Nap, then play."

Resigned to his fate, Johnny was once again passed into the arms of a waiting human woman, and carried off for his nap.

Rael chuckled, nodding to the departing boy. "Sound like little quarian. Little quarian not like nap same. Need though. Nap good, Johnny'Shepard nar Arcturus."

Berga had made sure her captain knew the full name of the little human, though he was still a little vague on what Arcturus or Earth exactly was.

"What Rael nar?" Hannah asked.

"Rael'Zorah vas Belari nar Rayya."

Hannah's eyes lit up, and she nodded. "Ah, Rayya quarian home planet?"

"No, Rayya ship. Big ship, big than Carl Jung. Many quarian."

"What quarian planet? Human planet Earth." Hannah pulled out a picture and handed it to Rael. He took it and studied it for a moment. It was beautiful, a blue-green sphere with white clouds. On the night side, the golden lights of cities appeared. It made Rael more than a little jealous, but it wasn't the humans fault that Rannoch was lost.

"Good. Pretty." Rael nodded.

"What quarian planet name?"

"Quarian planet Rannoch."

"Ah! Many quarian live Rannoch?"

There it was. The hard question. Rael hesitated for a moment, was it a good idea to tell the humans the truth? To let them know that the quarians had lost their homeworld. Yes. After all, if humanity didn't hear it from the quarians, they would hear it from far less sympathetic voices soon enough.

"No. No quarians live Rannoch."

This seemed to take Hannah by surprise, and for a moment, the human searched for the right words. "Why leave? Sick? Poison?"

"Geth." Rael brought up an image of a geth trooper, holding one of the plasma rifles. He played a short training vid, where the geth executed a squad of quarian civilians. "Geth, ah, metal people. Quarians make. Geth take Rannoch, quarians leave or, um, not live."

Using his omnitool, Rael showed an ancient vid of quarians boarding ships and fleeing as the geth cut down the soldiers trying to protect the women and children. "Geth bad. Make many quarian not live."

For a moment, Hannah studied the vid, all the color having drained out of her face. It was funny, it actually made her look more like a quarian, though Rael was pretty sure it was a fear response. Then, Hannah held up a closed fist. "Maybe humans help quarian. Make geth not live. Get Rannoch."

Rael looked around, and several of the other humans were nodding, their faces grim as the vid of the geth slaughtering quarians replayed.

Rael felt like crying.

SSV Hampton Roads - Hackett

"From what I can tell sir, these geth took the quarians home planet from them a few hundred years ago, three quarian lifetimes. It's safe to bet that's about 300 years, more or less the same as us." Chief Shepard was saying. "I think that's why all their gear is so old. They don't have the resources to maintain it. They're smart, clever and managed to develop a race of sentient AI, but from what I can tell those AI attacked the quarians and drove them off planet."

"Thank you, Senior Chief. Anything further to report?" Hackett asked.

For a moment, the women hesitated, then grinned sheepishly. "They all get along great with my son. They really seem to like him. Berga, one of the ships officers, was teaching him quarian songs and games. He likes them as well. I'm not sure if that's important, sir."

"I think it is Chief. Children are a good judge of character, and how people react to them tells us a lot about who we are dealing with. The quarians love our children, give them gifts, show them games and are patient and tolerant when Johnny pitches a fit. I saw the little nap scenario on vid. Don't be embarrassed Chief, he was being a child. But the way Rael reacted showed compassion and empathy. These are people we can get along with. Hackett out."

For a moment, Hackett drummed his fingers on his desk, then he turned and started recording a report. This was something Arcturus needed to know. The quarians needed raw materials, were friendly and empathetic, and possessed high technology. Hackett could practically smell the opportunities. More than that, Hackett saw a chance for humanity to prove what it was truly made of. That they were not the conquistadors or greedy sons of bitches that too many people seemed to see themselves as. Here was a chance for humanity to extend a helping hand to its neighbors. And if they happened to get something in return, well, that was just good karma wasn't it?

On that note, Hackett composed his second report to fleetcom. He just hoped the note of cooperation and friendless was a sign of things to come, or his entire career, and more importantly, the entire human race, was at risk.

MFBV Belari - Rael

Rael was in an exceptionally good mood. For the first time in his life, possibly ever, an alien had offered to help the quarians retake Rannoch. For Rael, that had always been his lifelong goal, what he had sworn to his infant daughter while he cradled her in his arms. Anything or anyone that helped him reach that goal was OK in Rael's book.

Granted, Hannah Shepard wasn't an admiral, or even a ship's captain. But it was the fact that she was willing to voice that opinion that counted. If there had ever been turians, asari, salarians, or even elcor, volus or hannar, that had ever spoken up in favor of assisting the quarians in retaking Rannoch, Rael had never heard of them. If the quarians could get the common human, like Hannah, on their side, perhaps retaking Rannoch wouldn't be just a dream for Rael anymore.

He sat down and began to compose his report. Even if at this point all humanity would be was a trading partner, the Admiralty needed to hear about it.

Migrant Fleet, Liveship Rayya

Admiral Unna'Xevish could hardly believe her auditory canals. "... In conclusion, this new species, humanity, seems to be open to establishing relations with the quarian people which could lead to a mutually beneficial alliance. I will continue to learn more about them, and ask permission for the fleet to send a team to their homeworld to further communication. I suggest myself and my XO, Han'Gerrel, as we have the most experience with the humans and speak more of their language. The human leader of their ships, Admiral Stephen Hackett, has requested the presence of additional quarian vessels and leadership if possible. We are currently in orbit around Relay 314. I also request that my wife, Kleeah'Zorah and daughter, Tali'Zorah, accompany the envoy. One of the human liaisons, Hannah Shepard, has a young son and I believe our children could be an excellent way to establish diplomatic relations. Captain Rael'Zorah out."

Unna turned to her ships officer, PIlla'Tris. "Get me the rest of the Admiralty Board. Now."

Alliance Space, Arcturus Station

Fleet Admiral Carlos Rodriguez could not keep the grin off his face. "Confirm CODE ABLE. Species is named quarians, initial contact friendly. Opportunity for peaceful relations and tech, as well as possible strong alliance." The initial burst from 314 had raised a lot of hopes. What had followed had confirmed them all.

He strode in to the Alliance parliament, and the entirety of the chamber hushed as his footsteps echoed in the halls. Dozens of cameras silently flashed, and a hundred vid recorders followed him up to the podium. Placing his notes before him, he cleared his throat, enjoying the moment of rapt attention.

"People of Earth. As Commander of the Alliance Navy, I come to you with glad tidings. First Contact has been made." On cue, a picture of Rael'Zorah clasping hands with Captain, due for a promotion, Barak Muhammad. "And people, it is friendly!"

A roar of applause and cheers deafened Admiral Rodriguez for a moment, but he didn't mind. When the applause died down, he showed the next slide, a recording of Hannah Shepard showing a picture of her son to the quarian, and the vid of him and his daughter. Gasps of joy and whispers of "how precious!" fluttered like the wings of a thousand thrushes before dying down.

"We knew that this was inevitable," Rodriguez continued, "that humanity was not alone in the universe after uncovering the prothean archives. But only in our wildest dreams did we imagine that first contact would happen with such a peaceful, caring people. From what we know, the quarians have offered to trade their advanced technology for supplies and goodwill offerings. Though we feel joy at this meeting, there is also sorrow."

An image of a geth, slaying a quarian appeared on the screen. Gasps of horror and panic."The quarians claim to have lost their homeworld to an uprising of AI servants of some sort. We do not have the details, but I have ordered an immediate halt on all AI development projects until we can learn all the facts."

Nods of approval and whispers of fear and worry.

"This presents a great opportunity for humanity." The slide changed again, back to Hannah and Gerrel giving each other gifts for their respective children. "Humanity has not only encountered another species, but we have a chance to be more than just a lonely race among the stars. We have found a friendly people, one that needs our help. We can give them that aid. We can forge a future, together for our peoples."

This was met with excited clapping, until Rodriguez held up a hand for silence. He got it.

A vid of Johnny Shepard in Rael's arms, laughing as the quarian made growling noises and moved the toy dinosaur appeared. "We have found another people in the stars. Will we sit back and do nothing, or will humanity show itself to be a friend to those in need?"

With a single voice, the senate roared their approval. The message was clear. Humanity would extend a helping hand, starting off their contact with the rest of the galaxy not with war or tragedy, but with mercy and peace. Admiral Rodriguez had never been so proud to be a human before in his life.

HWS Overwatch - Victus

"Lieutenant, take a look at this."

Adrian Victus moved over to the techs screen, then frowned. They had just jumped to right outside the system containing the 314 relay, a bit behind their original schedule, but it had been acceptable. The Migrant Fleet was indeed in the area, and one never knew what a suit rat might get up to if you didn't keep an eye on him.

"Looks like a cluster of ships in orbit around the Relay." Victus muttered.

"Yes sir, don't match anything in our data base, accept this one. It's a quarian ship sir, the Belari. Rael'Zorah is in command, and Han'Gerrel is his XO according to our latest intel."

"Zorah." Victus growled, spreading his mandibles in anger. That was a name loathed by the turian navy. Rael'Zorah was one suit rat the galaxy would be a better place without. He had crossed into turian space far too often, stolen to much salvage and gotten the best of the turians far too many times. "That barefaced suit rat has found a new species to do his dirty work! He's trying to get them to open the relay in clear violation of council law!"

"Looks that way sir."

"Damn him! Flash traffic to fleetcom, quarians attempting to open relay 314 with unknown species. Will stay in system to monitor activity. Request immediate back up and recommend full task force to be deployed."

"Yes sir!"

The atmosphere of the bridge hummed with excitement, and Victus growled deep in his throat as he flexed his talons. "You won't get away with it this time, Gerrel. Your days of tarnishing the honor of the Hierarchy are over."

And so, history began to play itself out as it had, much the same as before.

But this time, there was a nail.

This time, the horseshoe stayed on.

And that makes all the difference.

The proud shall be humbled.

The meek exalted.

All because of a nail.


	3. Chapter 3

"The first is the otherlander, or utlanning, the stranger that we recognize as being a human of our world, but of another city or country. The second is the framling... This is the stranger that we recognize as human, but of another world. The third is the raman, the stranger that we recognize as human, but of another species. The fourth is the true alien, the varelse, which includes all the animals, for with them no conversation is possible. They live, but we cannot guess what purposes or causes make them act. They might be intelligent, they might be self-aware, but we cannot know it. "

Orison Scott Card - Speaker for the Dead

SSV Carl Jung - Hackett

Five days. Had it really only been that long? Hackett could hardly believe it himself. Here he was, sitting in his hospital ship's officers mess with two aliens. Six days ago, he hadn't even really known aliens existed. Oh sure, everyone had been fairly certain there was intelligent extra-solar life after the discovery of the prothean cache, but there hadn't been any actual contact. Now, there had been; in just a few hours, leaders from both the quarian and human fleets would meet right here, on the Carl Jung. Hackett was witnessing history.

"Can I have some more juice, mommy?"

Hackett smiled down at the little tyke perched on Chief Shepard's lap. He was invited to the board meeting by virtue of the fact that his mother was currently the foremost expert on quarians, and both Rael and Gerrel seemed to really like him. Besides, it wasn't like this was a serious meeting. Well, it was, but it wasn't one where a three year old wouldn't be welcome. Currently, they were learning about human and quarian culture by exchanging customs, pics, vids, even a few stories. As Rael had said, "Who are we to say that a child does not have insight to offer on such things?"

Well, he was pretty sure that was what Rael had meant to say. It had come out more like, "We think we are wise, but child Shepard, he teach us more then vids or pics."

Currently, human quarian dialogue was not at the place where waxing eloquent was possible. They were making progress though, and between Hannah's surprisingly large Keelish vocabulary, what Hackett had picked up, and whatever English Rael and Gerrel had between them, they did alright.

Actually, now that Hackett thought about it, little Johnny was a foremost expert on quarians himself. After all, he and his mother had spent most of their waking hours with quarians since the Belari had arrived. They had needed to jury rig and envirosuit small enough for the kid, but the quarians had been very helpful there after seeing the boys difficulties. They didn't have any children onboard a warship, but they were experts and modifying tech. What they had done with the Alliance gear they had got their hands on was nothing short of incredible. They had already created crude translators for themselves, and for the Alliance, as well as showing the Alliance engineers how to optimize their drive cores, and a dozen other things.

Leaning toward Gerrel as Rael and Hannah fussed over Johnny, Hackett whispered, "You know something, I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship."

Gerrel jerked back. "You wanting to be linked suits with me?"

Now it was Hackett's turn to jerk back. "Link suits? What are you talking about?"

"To have relationship with me. To link our suits, ah, air, and um, things in air that are too small to see. Ts'alfum."

"Woah, not that kind of relationship!" Hackett laughed. "No, I mean friendship. Alliance. Our people, working together."

Gerrel chucked as well, waving his three fingered hands to show no offense was taken. Funny, those hands didn't even look that strange to Hackett now.

"Learning new language, is strange, yes?" Gerrel said. "When I learn sari, ah, many confusions there."

"Sari? Is that another language of your people?"

"Oh no, is language of asari. Different people. Ah! We not tell you! We not only two species in galaxy. Rael, we not tell them about asari! Ah, asari. Everybody love asari. Want relationship with them! Too bad asari not love quarians."

Gerrel made a picture of a strange blue alien woman, at least, with a rack like that, Hackett hoped it was a woman, standing on a platform of some kind.

"What do you mean, Gerrel, asari don't love quarians?" Hannah asked, now that her son was happily sipping from a tippy cup.

"Quarians, we ah, we no loved." Rael answered. "When geth take Rannoch, we kicked out galactic family. Citadel Council, they think they run galaxy. Quarians once part of Citadel, allies. Provide aid, support, military, economic," Those had been two words Hackett and the quarians had taught each other in a hurry, "like what we wish with Alliance"

"So why didn't they help you when the geth rebelled?" Hannah asked.

Rael made a noise reminiscent of a human fart, probably something Johnny had taught him. It was cultural after all. "Council, they no good. They say they help, they say we have to follow their rules. But when we need help? They laugh. Kick us out, no help. No food, no medicine, no planet. Call us suit rats. Not good word, bad, like word you not say in front of child. But is what they call us. Council only interested in what you do for them."

"Hmm. How many races on this council are there?" Hackett asked, playing for time while he thought. The revelation that there was a galactic body of some sort was interesting. The quarians also sounded like outcasts of some sort. Why, Hackett couldn't be sure. They seemed nice enough, but what was the whole story? It had something to do with the geth he was sure, but why kick the quarians out if they were the victims?

"Plenty races. Turian, salarian, asari, big three. They big, tell every other race what to do. You follow rules, or turians attack you. Kicked out quarians, gave krogan sickness that kill babies, do lots of bad things. Other races, they do what turian, salarian, asari say. Elcor, volus, hannar, drell, sometimes batarians, they all do what big three say."

"Don't the other races have a voice in galactic policy? What about humanity, what would be our place?" Hackett pressed.

Gerrel laughed, then shook his head. "You new. If turians find you trying to activate relay, they shoot you. We not shoot, we not care if you activate relay. Humans free to do what humans want, quarians not tell them what to do. But against council law to do so. Turians, quarians, we not get along. Turians strong men of council. They have big ships, big guns. Lots ships, lots guns. They shoot first, ask questions maybe."

"No negotiations?" Hackett asked, stunned. That was a stupid policy. To his mind, if you found a child, which at this point was what humanity was on the galactic stage, playing with fire you didn't try to kill or hurt them. You took them out of danger, then taught them what to do.

"Turians think guns work good for negotiations." Rael answered. "You new, Hackett. Turians, asari, salarians, they not give, ah, cannot say, child here, but they not care. Asari maybe act like they care, but they let turians kick you plenty before they act. And when finished kicking you, not give you voice. You do what they say, or maybe asari not care so much if turians kick you."

"That's rather disturbing." Hannah murmured, frowning down at her son who was happily coloring a new picture while the grownups talked about boring things. "So they wouldn't give humanity a voice in galactic policies at all?"

"Council not change since before quarians leave Rannoch. Long time." Gerrel stated. "About 12 quarian lifetimes. Think quarians probably live same time as humans, little more, little less. When quarians part of council, we not have seat. Just do what council say. We screw up, not help. Just kick. All council good for. Kick."

HWS Stern Judicator

Admiral Sparticus frowned at his display. "Hmph. That's the Belari alright. And it's little friends. Look pretty primitive, don't they Saren?"

Sparticus's aid, Corporal Saren Arterius, nodded. "Indeed. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, Admiral."

Sparticus let out a heavy sigh. "Primitives. They never learn. And consorting with suit rats? It's like they WANT to get into the galaxies bad graces. Gunnery, give them a salvo. Teach them who the real power in the galaxy is."

MFBS Balari -Berga

There are moments in time that become more than just fading memory. They are where history is made, instants were the direction for an entire galaxy is determined. Encapsulated forever in the hearts and souls of nations as reminders of why we fight, why we live.

First Lieutenant Berga'Otorus was experiencing such a moment. Turian warships had just popped out of nowhere. They were barely on the Balari's scanners, and they certainly were not on the Alliances. Berga had just snapped off a warning to the humans, when a call came from her gunnery station.

"The turians have fired! One of their dreadnaughts rounds is headed straight for the Carl Jung! It will cut right through their barriers!"

"Move to interpose." Berga snapped, not even pausing to think about the implications for her of what she was saying. "Warn the humans to get out of here. Now."

"Aye aye, ma'am." Turl answered, his voice steady.

Berga felt nothing but calm in the few seconds she had remaining. Her ship could not take a direct hit from a turian dreadnaught, which in her last few seconds of life, was what the Balari was moving to do. What the Belari could do was absorb enough of the impact to allow the Carl Jung and its crew of innocents to escape. She closed her eyes and thought of the grinning, bright eyed young human who had been on the bridge the day before. He was on the ship she had just saved.

" Keelah se'lai, Johnny'Shepard nar Arcturus." She whispered, not noticing that she still had an open channel to the human ships.

"Keelah Se'lai," her bridge crew murmured.

Berga never felt the round that killed her, and all hands aboard the Belari. But the entire galaxy did.

MFBV Tonbay, Shala'Raan

"Ancestors, what was that!"

Raan stared at her screen, total disbelief was all she could think. "The Belari... She just entered evasive maneuvers, then exploded."

"RAEL!"

That was Kleeah'Zorah. Now a widow in all likely hood.

"Keelah, that was the turians! They just opened fire on the humans and on our ship! Three human ships destroyed and the Belari!"

"All ships, this is Admiral Vexxu'Herato. Engage the turians. Don't let another one of those human ships get destroyed!"

Raan was glad for the orders, all she could see was her new niece, now fatherless.

"You heard the Admiral!" Raan roared, facing her crew. "Get over there and blow those metal faced ancestor fuckers out of the skies!"

HWS Stern Judicator -Sparticus

"Admiral Sparticus, I just picked up multiple quarian ships on my scanners. They appear to have entered the system from just outside our range. They... They appear to making an attack run on us, putting themselves between us and the surviving alien vessels."

"You cannot be serious." Sparticus sneered. "Quarians, taking on a turian dreadnaught and her escort?"

"Yes sir. And um, sir?"

"What is it now?"

"Um, sir, an unidentified dreadnaught and its attendants just entered the system."

SSV Everest - Grissom

"The hell am I seeing!"Fleet Admiral Jon Grissom roared, staring at his readout. This was supposed to be a mission of peace. The aliens were supposed to be their friends. What the HELL was going on?

"Sir! The quarian ship, the Belari, it took a shot for the Carl Jung! Unknown alien vessels fired upon them sir. Those other ships though, they appear to be attempting to interpose themselves between the aggressors and our surviving ships. I think the friendlies are the quarians sir. The other ones, I don't know."

"I know what they are Lieutenant. Dead meat. All ships, open fire!"

The Battle of 314, AKA, The First Battle of the Second Contact War, AKA, the Turian/Independent League Conflict

The Everest was the first ever Alliance dreadnought, one of two so far with two more on the way. Compared to a turian dreadnought, it was both laughably underpowered, clumsy, and with barriers that wouldn't do much against anything in the turian arsenal.

None of that mattered a damn though when the Everest was facing the enemies exposed underbelly. Underpowered in comparison to a turian dreadnought, the Everest still packed a punch. Her first shot was blocked when one of the other aggressor ships sacrificed itself in the same manner the Belari had. The second and third drained the Judicators shields. The fourth crippled her engines.

After that, the turians claimed they performed a tactical withdrawal. The truth was different. The truth was, the remaining ships fled before the fury of their two enemies fleets, working for the first, but not the last, time in concert. By turian standards, quarian ships were pieces of junk and human ships were primitive jokes. The turians were not laughing though, as they were outnumbered by 3-1, and in a rather horrible position, caught between Grissom's task force and Herato's expedition, and now down in the dreadnought count.

Human and quarian ships rapidly fell into a classic pincer movement, trapping three turian cruisers and five frigates, forcing their captains to scuttle their ships and evacuate. To Admiral Sparticus's credit, he too scuttled his ship before evacuating, and along with his faithful aid Saren Arterius, was the last turian to leave on the last life pod.

SSV Carl Jung - Johnny

Johnny wasn't sure why is mommy was crying, or why the man with the blue hat was crying, or why the pink mask man was crying, or why the loud mask man was crying. He wasn't crying, but he was hugging his mommy. That's what she did when he cried, and maybe she would stop crying if he hugged her hard enough.

"Mommy, why are you crying?" Johnny asked, his lip trembling. Maybe he would cry too. He was feeling pretty sad now.

"Shhhh. Shhhh. Come here, my little dino." Mommy whispered. She picked him up and cuddled him, and the world was warm and safe. Everything was always safe when mommy held you, and nothing bad could happen.

"Gone, they're all gone." The pink man cried. Johnny could understand him, even though he spoke a funny talk, not like mommy. He could understand a lot of talks, though the pink mans was the funniest. He had always been able to figure out the other kids at the day cares talks pretty fast, and they had lots of different talks.

"Who's gone mommy?" Johnny whispered.

Mommy hugged him tighter, and Johnny almost asked her to stop, but she was still crying, so he just hugged her back. "The quarians on that ship we visited yesterday, they just saved us from something very bad."

"Oh. But that's good, right?"

"Yes." Mommy whispered, planting a big kiss on Johnny's forehead. "But they got hurt when it happened. That's why we are sad."

"Oh. Well, I could draw them a picture. You always feel better when I draw you a picture."

"Why don't you do that sweetie. Your crayons are right over there."

Johnny set to work while his mommy went over and cried some more with the pink man. Everyone was very sad, but Johnny didn't really understand it. The loud noise and the bright lights were over, so why were they still sad? Me drew a picture of himself and the funny people on their ship. They had all been very nice, letting him push buttons, and spin things, and even crawl under stuff and get dirty! Mommy didn't usually like it when he got dirty, but since he had been in the weird clothes, she had said it was OK.

When he finished, he took the picture over to mommy and the pink man. "I drawed this for you."

The pink man stopped crying and bent down, carefully taking the picture. "Thank you, Johnny Shepard. May the spirits of my crew find it a suitable offering."

"Soup bowl off ring." Johnny agreed. For some reason, that made mommy and the pink man cry some more, but mommy picked him up and hugged him, so it was OK.

As long as mommy held him, it was always OK.

MFBV Saafa - Admiral Vexxu'Herato

"You're lucky, Sparticus. If it wasn't for the fact that I don't want quarian pilgrims getting executed by the turians, I would convene a court marshal right now and shoot you myself."

"You have no authority to do that. The Council would eat you suit rats for breakfast if you tried."

"YOU ARE ON MY SHIP. YOU KILLED MY PEOPLE. THE HELL I CAN'T TURIAN." Herato tried to remind herself that losing her temper wouldn't do her any good. But she had had a son on the Belari, who had been so excited to serve under Captain Zorah. Now her son was dead.

"In a perfectly legal action. Your ship was aiding in the activation of a relay. That's against Council Law."

"The humans have no knowledge of Council Law! How are they to learn if you kill them!"

"If you don't enforce the law, no one has any respect for it."

Herato could feel herself losing it again. "Get this bosh'tet out of my sight." She growled. Two marines manhandled Sparticus away, and Herato snorted.

"He actually thinks what he did was right!" Herato seethed to her aid.

"Well, perhaps in the brig he will see the error of his ways." Her aid, Zaal'Koris observed.

"Not likely. I've yet to see a turian bend his neck. And I have no idea how we will feed all these prisoners. The Alliance certainly can't."

"The emergency stockpiles will last until the rest of the fleet meets us at the humans Arcturus Station. We'll figure out what to do after that." Koris stated.

He was right, but that didn't make the fact that all her able bodied crew were going on half rations to feed their enemies any easier. "If only we could let the humans feed them. That would be a sight to see."

"You know, I'm not the blood thirsty sort, but I am halfway tempted to agree Admiral."

"Ancestors help us! Cool Blood Koris actually wants to see someone dead?"

"After what the turians did to the Belari and the humans, you're damn right I do ma'am."

SSV Carl Jung - Hannah Shepard

It was a historic moment, but for all the wrong reasons. Jon Grissom, leader of all of humanities fleets, was shaking hand with one of the leaders of an alien nation. But they were not meeting to discuss trade agreements, cultural exchanges, or anything good and healthy like that. They were meeting to discuss war. The Jung was already en route to Arcturus station, and due to the fact that quarian and human ships could barely communicate at sublight speeds, let alone at FTL, necessitated they meet on neutral ground. And after the Balari's crew had sacrificed themselves so that the Jung could live, both sides seemed to consider the Jung one of their own.

Hannah was translating for Fleet Admiral Grissom, and Rael for Admiral Vexxu'Herato.

"So, the turians. What do you believe is their next move?" Hannah translated.

"Probably to move against both our peoples in force. Thank you again for offering to shelter the Migrant Fleet, Admiral. No other people has offered us aid in over 300 years."

"It would be an insult to the sacrifice of the Belari to do otherwise. Humanity sticks by its friends, and knows who they are. I cannot imagine a greater proof that the quarians are the friends of humanity then the actions of the Belari's courageous crew. I just wish it had not been necessary."

"I wish the same, but wishes will not bring back the dead. The turians likely do not know where your bases are, or where your colonies are. But by the location of the 314 relay, and the direction your fleet entered from, they will know where to start looking. And the course of the migrant fleet will be easy to chart, even with the planned evasive maneuvers. You cannot hide 50,000 ships entering and exiting FTL."

"Humanity isn't interested in hiding. If the turians want us, we'll be ready for them. But I say we strike first. They drew first blood. Time to pay them back."

"I could not agree more Admiral, but we must use caution. The turian ships are superior in every way to our own."

"Agreed. But you have some idea of the disposition of their fleet, and what locations are open to surgical strikes. The turians declared war when they opened fire on our ships. Let's give them one."

"Yes. Tactics. Just how many colonies does humanity possess at the moment?"

There was a bit of discussion at that, finally, Admiral Grissom answered. "That's a difficult question to answer, we have several colonies still in the developing stages, but I would estimate that we currently possess eight worlds with active colonies, not including any planets in the Sol system."

"That's incredible, how long has humanity known of the Relays?"

"Eight years."

That elicited murmurs of shock from the quarians, and Vexxu had to steady herself again. "So little time, yet you already have eight colonies and a dreadnaught?"

"We have two dreadnaughts actually, the Everest is the class leader, but the Fuji was completed a year ago, and the Elbrus is six months from completion. The Kilimanjaro will be finished about 18 months after the Elbrus, and contains several dramatic improvements and upgrades."

At this point, there wasn't much Grissom would have been able to say that would have shocked Vexxu.

"I see. And if the we were to assist with the construction?"

Grissom shrugged. "I imagine we could get the Elbrus finished in a few months, and the Kilimanjaro done in under a year. I'm more concerned about getting the carriers finished though. We only have one of those, it took us longer to figure out how to make economical fighters then capital ships."

"Carriers?"

"You know, ships that carry small craft into battle. Bombers, fighters, that sort of thing."

"I have never heard of such a ship. We will have to discuss that at length."

"The turians don't have carriers?" This was Hackett now, and his eyes gleamed almost as brightly as a quarians.

"No, no race fields a ship that is exclusively a small craft platform."

The two human admirals shared vicious grins. "Really," Grissom purred. "Well then. Perhaps this war won't be so impossible after all."

And so it went on, for hours and hours. Hannah should have become weary and sick of it, but she didn't. All she could think of was the fact that her son was still alive because a quarian crew had decided to save him. There was nothing Hannah could have done, no action she could have personally taken to keep the light of her life safe. But the Belari had been able. And they had done so. No sacrifice to honor them was too great. No act to much to ask. To avenge the Belari, Hannah was ready to do anything.

When the talks finally finished, Hannah and Rael both headed to the nursery. They stood outside a few moments, watching. Rael's wife, Kleeah, was playing with Johnny and Tali, her infant child. Tali was only about 9 months old, but she crawled around in what the humans had dubbed "the hamster ball," giggling and squealing with pleasure as Johnny chased her. Gripped firmly in three of Tali's chubby fingers was a plastic dinosaur.

"She's too cute." Hannah said, leaning up against the glass. "But I can't imagine my child having to spend her life in a ball.

"She's too young for a suit. She won't get one for a few more years, on her fifth birthday. It's what we have to do though. After so long in sterile environments, our immune systems couldn't hold off a fraction of the contaminates present on this ship."

"Still, to never be able to hold her? Not to be able to share a touch, a kiss, a hug? I don't know how you do it."

"We do what we have too. And we hope that one day, our children won't have to grow up in a hamster ball." That was said with just a touch of humor. Once what a hamster ball was had been explained to him, Rael had taken to calling Tali "His Little Hamster." No one had had the courage tell the quarians that "Suit Rat" translated to something very close to hamster ball. Besides, the humans meant it in affection, not scorn.

"Maybe that will be someday soon. We've got an awful lot of scientists back on Earth. And humanity owes the quarians a pretty big debt."

"I pray it will be so. But that was not a way I wished to incur your peoples debt. I..."

Hannah put her arm around the ex-captain. "Hey, it's OK Rael. You shouldn't have been there. I'm glad you weren't. Without you, I would never be able to translate all that stuff. And that would set back our relations by weeks. Time we don't have."

"I know you're right Hannah. But that doesn't make things any easier." Rael sighed and stood. "Come on. At least our children can remind me why my crews sacrifice was worth it."

SSV Carl Jung -Tali'Zorah

The world was such a bright place, full of so many interesting things. The new person, the laughing one who growled, was so fascinating! Tali laughed whenever she saw him. He didn't look like the mother person or the strong person or the gentle person or any of the other persons. Something was strange about him, but Tali didn't really know what. The mother person and the strong person liked the laughing person though, so Tali liked him too.

Tali liked lots of things, though not the barrier. The thing that kept her from touching the mother person, or any of the other persons. Tali wished she could go back to the warm place, where the mother person had held her and given her warm food from the food place. But now Tali's food came from something else. It was still good, but she missed the mother person.

Just then, she was lifted up and she saw the father person. He was making the happy face, so Tali laughed and smiled. That made more happy faces, and Tali laughed and smiled some more.

The world was such a bright, happy place.

SSV Carl Jung - Johnny Shepard

"Mr. Zorah! Mr. Zorah! Babytali has a dinosaur! It's one of my old ones! Look it!"

Johnny was happy. There were lots of new friends to play with now, and they all talked the funniest talk. Some of them were bigger then Johnny, some of them were smaller, but they all seemed to be nice. The best one though was Babytali. She had one of Johnny's old dinosaurs from somewhere. In most three year olds, this would have provoked a fit. But Johnny was the generous sort, and not one to whine when someone younger and weaker than him took his toys. They didn't know any better after all, and Johnny would rather teach them what was better then try to force them to do things his way.

"So I see." Mr. Rael said, setting Babytali back down in her ball.

"Why is Babytali in a ball?"

"So she doesn't get sick."

"Will I have to be in a ball? I got sick one time."

"No you won't Johnny. Maybe someday, Tali can come out of her ball and play with you."

Johnny's face lit up at the prospect, and he bent down and looked Babytali in her glowing eyes. "You hear that Babytali! Someday we can play together with no ball!"

"Ba!"

"She talked!" Johnny shouted, and all the adults crowded around and made cooing noises. Johnny copied them, content in his own little world.

Many of the adults wished they could join him.

Palavan Command - Adrian Victus

"How did the primitives' dreadnought manage to cripple the Stern Judicator, Lieutenant Victus?"

"Sir, the primitives' dropped out of FLT on her flank, inferior to her on the orbital plain. We had no warning they were even coming. We were also unaware of the quarian presence beyond the Belari."

"Hmm. So your report says. Very well Lieutenant, explain why you were late in patrolling the 314 relay."

"Sir, I elected to extend my patrol to monitor Migrant Fleet activity. I thought the suit rats, er, the quarians were up to something."

"Your suspicions appear to be correct, as we have noted. You did well Lieutenant. If it was not for your warning, we would have no knowledge of this new threat. The quarians have long been a disgrace to the galaxy. Return to the barracks for your next assignment, Captain Adrian Victus."

"Sir!" Victus saluted, and executed a parade ground about face, marching out of High Command with all the poise he could muster.

It felt like a weight had just lifted from his shoulders. Victus had thought the Admirals had called him in to crucify him, but instead he had just been promoted. The Overwatch had been one of the few ships to escape the aliens trap, and High Command was not happy with the situation. One thing about the turian military though, if you were a subordinate following orders, you were rewarded no matter the outcome. Victus wouldn't want to be Sparticus just now, and for the sake of the Admiral, hoped he had perished in the battle.

One thing was certain though: the quarians and their strange new allies had just bought themselves a whole galaxy of trouble. The entire Hierarchy was mobilizing, all the fleets were being called out. Full scale war was at hand.

SSV Carl Jung - Rael'Zorah

Even with the massive case of survivors guilt he was experiencing, Rael still managed to feel pretty good. The Jung was still a day out from Arcturus, and Rael was free for a few hours to spend time with his family. They were sharing quarters with Hannah and her son, which meant that by quarians standards, the accommodations were spacious and luxurious.

Right now though, Rael was alone in the compartment with his wife. Hannah had taken the two children for a few hours while Rael got some much needed time alone with his mate.

"When I saw the Belari destroyed... Rael, my heart broke. The thought of Tali growing up without a father..."

"I know. I should have been on that ship, with my crew. As captain..."

"You were doing your duty. It's not your fault. It was the turians."

"The turians. Anytime something good seems to happen to our people, those metal heads show up and try to destroy it."

"I don't think they can destroy this. I like Hannah, even if I have a hard time talking with her still. And her son, he's adorable. Tali seems to like both of them as well."

Rael chuckled and pulled his wife a little closer to him. "Ah yes, our daughter. I suppose between the two of you, I do have something to live for still, don't I?"

"You do Rael! I don't want to lose you. Being away from you, with the baby is hard enough. But if you died..."

"I can't promise I won't, my heart. You know there will be war with the turians now."

"Yes. And you have your duty." Kleeah sounded half bitter when she said that.

"No, I have you and Tali. Duty be damned. I'm not going to let anything happen to either of you. Our daughter WILL have a bright future. If her father has to sacrifice his to make that happen, then so be it."

Kleeah shuddered, and Rael knew she was silently crying. "I know Rael, I know. Its just, wouldn't it be a better future if you were there too?"

"I won't argue with that, I don't plan on dying. But I don't plan on letting others fight for me either. Hannah plans the same thing. We both will be needed on the front lines for battlefield communication. It won't be glamorous or even that dangerous possibly, but it will be vital."

"That's a comfort, at least."

"You'll probably be conscripted too. You speak better human then most with all the time you've spent in the day care. They might need you to translate as well. "

"I won't go into battle willingly, not with the baby, but I will do what I can. For our daughter."

"For our daughter."

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Christian Bible, John 15:13

There is no greater calling, no greater purpose, then one who would give up his life for another, though the other has earned it not.

The Book of the Ancestors, Fifth Scroll, the Wisdom of Ancestor Yttel'Venish


	4. Chapter 4

_**"People of Earth, I come before you with grim tidings. Recently, we learned that we are not alone in the galaxy, and made first contact with the quarian crew of the Belari. Today I tell you that the friendship of the quarians is beyond doubt, and their intentions beyond reproach. When another alien vessel, commanded by a barbaric race known as the turians, discovered our fleet, they fired upon our defenseless hospital ship with no warning. To prevent the deaths of our own civilians, the Belari gave themselves in the ultimate sacrifice. Other quarian ships arrived on the scene, and with Admiral John Grissom drove off the turian menace. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the quarian people, and we mourn for the brave sacrifice of the Belari."** _

_**"Today humanity stands on the precipice, with a race utterly bent on our annihilation for no better reason then that they deem themselves the masters of the galaxy. Humanity must rise to this occasion or we are doomed. But we do not stand alone. The quarians too have come under attack by the turians, and I have personally approved Admiral Grissom's offer of shelter and aid to the migrant quarian nation. They shall be arriving at Arcturus station in less than a week, where we will begin preparations for war."** _

_**"Now is the hour of humanity's test. Shall we be found wanting, and relegated to a footnote in some alien conquerors trophy room? I say no! We shall stand with our quarian brothers and sisters, and together defeat the turians and their bloodthirsty fleets! If they seek our doom, it is their own they shall find! With the aid of the quarians, it is the turians who shall fear us!"** _

_**"But we of the systems Alliance cannot do this alone. We need your help. As of now, we are selling war-bonds and asking for all able bodied men and women to volunteer for military service. If you cannot serve, you can aid those who do so by buying bonds and welcoming the quarian people into your homes. This is not a war of conquest, or of petty bickering or land grabs for resources or national pride. This is a fight where our very right to exist is at stake. If we fail, our homes, our children, or lovers and our very way of life will be destroyed. To survive, we must have a strong Alliance. For a strong Alliance is a strong humanity, and a strong humanity is one that will remember this storm."** _

_**"Remember the Belari! Keelah Se'ai."** _

_-_ _**Alliance Prime Minister Yoon Hyori, public address to the Sol System, July 20th 2157** _

_Arcturus Station - Hackett ** _ _July 23rd, 2157__**_

"This is Rear Admiral Hackett aboard the SSV Carl Jung. The alien ships on your scanners are quarian, our allies. Confirmation, 'Able brought his sheep before the Lord.'"

"This is Fleet Admiral Carlos Rodriguez. I am receiving similar confirmation from Supreme Fleet Admiral Grissom. Welcome home, Carl Jung. Tell our guests we heard about the Belari. We will honor their sacrifice."

Hackett turned to Rael, who nodded. "I understand. I'll pass it along to the Admiral."

In the five day trip from 314 to Arcturus, the quarian's English had improved dramatically, as had Hackett's keelish. In fact, there were not many sailors aboard the Carl Jung, or any other human ship, who hadn't picked up at least a smattering of the quarian tongue.

"I just wish this was a proper welcome, instead of the prelude to war." Hackett sighed.

Rael shrugged. "It is what it is, as you humans say. My crew knew what they were doing. It's in our operational doctrine for a warship to sacrifice itself to save civilians."

"That's humanities doctrine as well, but it doesn't change anything. They will not be forgotten. And the turians will not be soon forgiven."

Before long, Hackett was on the shuttle with Admiral Grissom, Senior Chief Shepard, Rael'Zorah (apparently, quarians didn't keep their rank if they lost their ship) and Admiral Vexxu'Herato, along with the various aids and flunkies. It wasn't a cheery group. They should have been returning from a mission of peace. Instead, they were survivors returning from battle.

The shuttle docked, and it's passengers departed, each one walking side by side with their alien counterpart. Leading the assembly were Hackett and Rael, in recognition of those lost under their command. Normally, Hackett would be walking to an investigative hearing to determine just why three vessels under his command were lost. But not today. It was silent, with ranks of Alliance personal in dress blues and grimfaced members of the media recording the progress of the party down the open corridor.

From somewhere, Hackett thought it was one of the members of the press, someone yelled, "Remember the Belari! Keelah Se'lai!"

"The Belari! Keelah Se'lai!" In moments, the entire crowd had taken up the cheer, and the hanger reverberated with a hundred human voices shouting to honor fallen aliens.

Hackett's long stride took him away from the shouting soon enough, but the sound followed them. Along their path, service personal and civilians had taken up the cry.

"The Balari!"

"Keelah Se'lai!"

"Remember 314!"

"Never forget!"

"Keelah, did you plan this?" Rael asked in keelish, his voice rough.

Hackett shock his head. "I didn't. Someone might of, but this looks spontaneous to me."

Rael was silent the rest of the way to the temporary parliament chamber.

The entire Alliance Senate and more than a few dignitaries from Earth crowded the makeshift chamber. The permanent housing for the Senate was still under construction, and would not be finished for several more years if everything went according to schedule. Hackett took his seat at the table a steward led him to, his name engraved a gold plate before him. Rael sat at his side, his own name in Keelish before him. The rest of the members of the quarian and human delegation also seated themselves.

Inside the chamber, the atmosphere was grim. No one was cheering. These men and women were aware of just how much danger humanity was in.

Prime Minister Yoon Hyori stood, bowing formally to the seated visitors. "On behalf of all the peoples of Earth, I welcome our friends the quarians to Arcturus station. I wish that these were happier times, but right now, we must ask for the quarian people to explain to us just what sort of situation is developing." She had spoken in English, so Hannah quietly translated for Admiral Vexxu'Herato.

The quarian admiral nodded, then stood. "We thank you for the warm welcome, madam president," she said through Hannah, "not since our exile has any race freely welcomed our people. Long have the turians and the other members of the so-called galactic ruling body turned us away when we needed food, shelter or medicine. I am afraid your situation is dire. The turian military will mobilize for full scale war.

"Rarely before have the turians mobilized their entire force. Not since the krogan rebellions, when the turians committed the slow genocide of an entire race by infanticide have the turians readied their fleets. They will do so now. By attacking and destroying a ship of the migrant fleet and the allies of the quarians, they have officially declared war. While the quarians possess the largest fleet in the galaxy, over 50,000 vessels," at this, a sharp intake of breath could be heard, humanity possessed just over 1000 ships, including civilians models." "-But out of our ships, only a fraction are capable of making war. We lack the resources to modify our ships for combat, and most of them contain our civilian population."

"Question." A young senator called, his thick brogue giving Hackett his identity. Donnel Uduna, from Ireland. "What if your civilian population no longer needed to remain aboard those ships?"

Hannah translated the question from Vexxu, who looked up at the brash young man. "And where, exactly, would you put more than 17 million quarians?"

"Why, probably Earth, Terra Nova, and Shanxi. Those are our most developed worlds. I've heard you can't eat our food though, we'll have to manufacture green houses and the like. That shouldn't be much of a problem; our industry is already spun up for colonial gear."

Hackett found himself nodding, along with most of the other humans in the room.

"You would do this?" It was Rael speaking, he was standing, looking straight into Udina's eyes.

"Of course. It's not much of a repayment for the sacrifice of your ship's crew, but if it would solidify our alliance and allow you to refit your ships for battle, with our assistance, naturally, it should give us a fighting chance against these turians."

"You would share your worlds with us?" This was Vexxu, also standing now.

Now Udina looked confused. "Well, yes. Why wouldn't we? Our colonies are all sparsely settled at the moment, and even Earth has room for more with all the colonists that have left. After all, we're asking an awful lot of you, to throw your lot in with us against the turians."

All the quarians began talking at once, and Hackett couldn't follow the conversation. His keelish was pretty good, but he couldn't keep up with the pace or number of voices that were talking.

Vexxu's voice suddenly drowned out the others. "Enough! Sit." She turned to Prime Minister Hyori. "Do you also agree with this?"

Keying in something in her datapad, Hyroi addressed the Senate. "All in favor of immediately granting unlimited immigration visas to the quarian people on all human colonies, please stand."

Hackett did a quick mental count, and determined that no one was sitting down.

"Motion carried. Admiral?"

_Arcturus Station - Vexxu ** _ _July 23rd, 2157__**_

Vexxu did not even hesitate. "Done."

"Very good. I'll see to it that our colonial authorities and the nations of Earth are notified to begin preparation to receive your civilian population. We'll have to work out the logistics later, especially the food situation, but room will be made for everyone."

Leaning on the table, Vexxu had to fight back tears of pure joy. For the first time in over 300 years, her people had a home. For the first time in 300 years, her people had friends. For the first time in 300 years, the quarians were wanted, no needed, in another's territory.

"Now, as for military preparations," the human leader continued, "what do you suggest Admiral?"

"A moment." Vexxu gasped, sinking into her seat. She couldn't believe it. Not in her wildest dreams when she had heard of an opportunity for an alliance with a new species had Vexxu imagined they would offer the quarians a place not just on their colonies, but on their homeworld. It made her head spin.

"Forgive me, honored hosts, but I never imagined such a welcome." Vexxu managed after a moment.

"It's alright, Admiral. Take your time." This was her translator, Hannah'Shepard.

Vexxu nodded, took a deep breath and sat up. "The turians are going to probe your, our, lines, starting with the 314 relay and working their way backwards. They can trace the migrant fleet to an extent as well, though once we make the jump to FTL the turians will only be able to approximate our heading. We will make several short range jumps out of system and take several different routes, but you can be sure the turians will have a general idea of where we are headed."

"As such, we're going to have to send out patrols." Hackett explained. "Admiral Grissom, myself and the quarians have outlined a plan to deter turian incursion into human space. We're going to have to defend several systems that have no value, simple to misdirect the turians and keep them from our home turf."

"Yes, here are several systems we have highlighted as possible choke points for the enemy..." Vexxu stated, bringing up the systems on her omnitool. Despite the focus on war, Vexxu was quivering with joy inside. Her people had finally found a home.

**_Liveship Rayya, High Earth Orbit - Unna'Xevish, August 17th, 2157_ **

"You really think this isn't all just some trap, Admiral?"

Unna sighed and turned to Pilla'Tris. "If I thought this was a trap, we wouldn't be here. The humans seem sincere enough."

"And what if it's just some scheme to get our ships from us?"

"Please Pilla, it's not like were abandoning the Rayya or any of the other ships. What species would risk having an entire navy, a navy with superior weapons, shields and technology, in its homeworld's atmosphere just to try and steal a few ships? We outnumber the human ships 100-1 right now."

"No one is ever this happy to see us." Pilla grouched.

She wouldn't be satisfied unless humans showed up with the keys to Rannoch Unna decided. Her ships officers grumbling was interrupted by the docking tubes airlock door opening and a human striding out.

"Many welcomes friend!" He said, or at least that's what Unna's crude translator thought that was what he said. There were not enough live translators to go around, so the quarians and humans were making do with crude VI's. Not nearly as effective as a live translator at this stage of the game, but you worked with what you had when you were a quarian.

"Am being Ramón Gerardo, man from Earth. Very many happies come from see you!"

Unna stepped forward and shook the humans hand. He had on an evirosuit out of respect for the quarians aboard their own ship, though soon on Earth that wouldn't be necessary. "Admiral Unna'Xevish, leader of the Civilian Fleet. It's good to see such a friendly welcome."

The human cocked his head to one side while he listened, his own translator struggling to keep up with Unna's words. "Ah yes, welcoming quarians! Come, we show you new homes. Very good for you, giving one my homes just for friends."

"One of your homes?" Pilla asked, not quite understanding.

"Ah, building you live in? Yes, building, have many buildings. I what you say, lots of money? Make many inventions. Now, use money, inventions to help quarians. Quarians, humanity, future together. Alone, no good. Turians kill."

That was something Unna could get on board with. "United we survive, alone we die. Lead on, Ramón Gerardo."

As leader of the fleet, Unna and Pilla would be the first onto Earth's surface. As far as they could tell from scans, there were no expected problems, but it didn't hurt to check. They boarded the humans ship and took off for the surface. Once again, Unna was struck by just how new human equipment was. It wasn't top of the line, but for first generation stuff, it wasn't bad, and it was certainly built to last.

In a few minutes, they landed on the planet's surface. A grinning Ramón led Unna outside, where a cheering crowd waited for them. This was astonishing to Unna, as a sea of human faces, young and old, male and female, from a color palette that was shocking, cheered on the quarians. An honor guard of human soldiers stood by, crisply saluting as Unna and Pilla walked forward. An enormous sign, depicting a human and quarian shaking hands among the stars with the words in keelish, "Keelah Se'lai, Friend," painted below them.

"Do you know what that means?" Unna asked Ramon, pointing to the sign.

He looked up and shrugged. "We think blessing? Not want to offend if not. Only know, last words of Belari. Try to honor them."

"It means, 'by the homeworld I wish to see one day!'" Pilla supplied, crowding close to Ramon.

"Ah, this bad? Earth not Rannoh, but we try to help, share what we have." Ramon answered, glancing up at the sign.

"No." Unna said, not taking her eyes off the sign. "I think it's perfect. Send an image to the fleet, Pilla. Keelah Se'lai indeed."

**_Uncharted System 614719-UAA, HWS Creed of Augustin - Derrus Legioni August 23rd, 2157_ **

"Anything?" Derrus demanded, her own eyes searching the instruments carefully.

"Not yet ma'am, commencing long range scans and launching probes."

Sighing, Derrus leaned back and scratched her headplates. War was here, but for now, war was boring. Endless scans of empty systems, trying to get a lock on where the primatives and the suit rats had fled too. Boring as hell, to be sure.

"Contacts! Looks like three hostiles just lit off their engines and are closing in fast."

"Cruisers?" Derrus demanded. Her own cruiser was operating alone, and couldn't hope to take on three enemy ships of her own weight class, even primative and quarian ships.

"Um, one frigate and two fighters ma'am."

"Are you certain? Are they masking their emissions?"

"To broadband for that ma'am, we've got a clear read out. They appear to making an attack run."

"One frigate and two fighters against a cruiser?"

"Looks that way."

"Move to intercept, but on an elliptical that will let us rabbit out of the system if we have to. They can't hope to take on a Hierarchy warship. What the hell are they playing at?"

 _SSV Dunkirk_  -  _Commander Sun ** _August 23rd, 2157_**_

There on the scanners was Sun's death, and the death of his entire crew. They couldn't hope to actually kill the turian ship, not when it was superior to Sun's own ships in every imaginable way. But that wasn't the point.

"Aim for their engines. We have to prevent them from penetrating further in to this system." Sun ordered.

"Aye aye."

His crew knew what was at stake. All of them had family back on Earth or on one of the Colonies. This system didn't contain anything of value, but if humanity fought like hell to keep it, perhaps the turians would waste a few more precious days that would allow Earth's industry to spin up a little more. A few more converted quarian ships, another dozen fighters, a few hundred more trained marines. Anything to give Earth an edge.

"It has been a pleasure serving with you all." Sun stated, and his crew nodded their silent agreement, their faces grim as they ran toward death with open arms.

_HWS Creed of Augustin - Derrus ** _August 23rd, 2157_**_

"Spirits, was that it?" Derrus was breathing hard as she stared at multiple emergency lights on her panel. The primitive ships had been destroyed, but at a steep cost.

"I think so ma'am, but scanners are now offline. We're basically blind until we get them repaired."

"Engines?"

"We'll have those up in a few hours at most ma'am."

"Good. Get us out of here. The primitives are hiding something here. High Command needs to know about this system."

**_Atmosphere Above Shanxi - Darro'Xen September 7th, 2157_ **

"This is to be our new home, then?" Xen asked, peering through the shuttle viewport at the green world growing rapidly closer below her.

"For now. Ancestors, can you believe it Xen? A planet, one that actually wants us?"

"As long as they have the resources I need for my lab, I don't care if they want us or not."

The Ikomi was one of the ships that had accompanied Admiral Vexxu to Arcturus, and had been dispatched to Shanxi to check it's suitability for quarian settlement, along with several other ships. They had a greenhouse ship with them, and the humans had already started construction of sealed farms to allow the quarians to grow bumper crops of dextros based foods.

"Have you heard what they gave to the quarians that went to Earth? I don't think we're going to be lacking for supplies."

Xen grinned behind her mask. That was the nice thing about working with humans. Sure, they didn't have the best toys, but what they did have, they had a lot of. As a pragmatist, Xen understood what the humans were doing. They had the resources, but not the tech. Quarians had the tech, but not the resources. Together, they were far more effective. Xen laughed quietly at the planet approached. Bleeding hearts may claim their noble morals were why the two peoples were getting along, but anyone with a brain could see the real reason.

**_Palaven - High Admiral Regulus Ceezar September 18th, 2157_ **

"A dozen more reports of extreme resistance from the primitives and the quarians sir."

Ceezar twitched his mandibles slightly. "Any noticeable difference in the level of resistance anywhere?"

"No sir. They fight to the last to defend any system we so much as poke our noses into. Unless we go in with a full cruiser wolfpack, the idiots charge right in. Even then, if it looks like they might be able to do some damage, they come in anyway. They're losing more ships then we are, but it's bogging us down."

"Giving them more time to increase their economic production." Ceezar mused. "Impressive. In a straight focused fight, we would have them cold. But this little shadow campaign prevents us from bringing the full might of our fleets to bear."

"It would seem that way, sir."

"Hmmm." Ceezar tapped at his mandibles for a moment, then highlighted a half dozen systems. "Send in four dreadnought task groups to each of these systems, with a charted course in these directions. We'll find their base of operations at some point, and against a dreadnought group, their little suicide runs will only cost them."

"But sir, using dreadnoughts as a scouting force?"

"An invasion force. Let's see where they draw the line. Maybe we'll even get lucky."

"Yes sir."

**_HWS - Tribune of Mascartes - General Septimus November 6th, 2157_ **

"Got you." General Septimus spread his mandibles in a wide grin. And after only scouting three systems too. Their hadn't been any resistance before now, though Septimus had a feeling that any forces the primitives and the suit rats might have had had elected to lie dormant until the massive dreadnought group had gone through.

Admiral Tiberian answered with a grin of his own. "Indeed. This looks like those primitives homeworld. They've got at least as many ships around it as we recorded at 314. No dreadnaught though. But there are several of the suit rats ships."

"Just get us into orbit. My men and I can secure a dirtball like this with our eyes closed." Septimus boasted.

Tiberian nodded. "I am worried about that dreadnaught though. Could cause a lot of damage if we don't watch ourselves."

Septimus snorted. "You have four dreadnaughts will you. What are you worrying about?"

"What do you think that poor bastard Sparticus thought?" Tiberian asked. "He certainly wasn't expecting those primitives to have a dreadnaught, and who knows where the rest of the migrant fleet is? I'm not going to make the same mistakes Sparticus did. We fight this one smart. I'm holding half the fleet in reserve and sending in the rest to secure that primary planet."

Grudgingly, Septimus gave his assent. "Alright. As long as you get me dirt side. Time for a little payback on the suit rats and the primitives."

**_Landing, Shaxi -General Williams November 6th, 2157_ **

"Damn. That's more than four times the size of the force that Admiral Grissom took out."

"Doesn't change a damn thing. Two times or four times, the fleet will never be able to hold, even with the quarian reinforcements." William's declared, slamming his armored fist onto the consol.

A nervous tech looked up at his commander. "What do we do sir?"

"Get me a public broadcast." The General ordered. It didn't take long, Shanxi had an emergency broadcast system built into every communication device on the planet.

"Citizens of Shanxi. The turian fleet has arrived. Our forces cannot hold, and will be forced to retreat. We all knew that this was a possibility. So I ask you, people of Shanxi, shall we surrender to these murderous savages? Will we roll over and play dead?

"I say no! Let this be our battle cry! Remember the Belari! No quarter, no mercy! These monsters showed us none, and when our fleet arrives to relieve us, we shall show them none!

"Remember the Belari!"

All across Shanxi, men and women gathered their children and supplies and headed for the safety of the hills. They had drilled for this ever since word of the turian menace had arrived two weeks ago. None of them had any intention of surrendering. They all knew what was at stake.

**_Shanxi - Corporal Zaeed Massani November 20th, 2157_ **

"This is goddamn brilliant." Zaeed chuckled as he loaded the explosives onto the turian shuttle.

The quarian engineer made a disapproving sound. "You humans insane. Turians never fall for this."

"Worth a goddamn try!" Zaeed laughed. "We're tired of those metal bastards shooting us up from their little hidey hole up there. So now we're giving them a little present, see."

"Never work. To many explosives, shuttle not even fly."

"You're the one who goddamn made them. Should have made them lighter."

"Aww come on Xen, you're the one who said we needed a use for this thing." That was Jonsey, one of the members of what was left of Zaeed's squad.

"You go ahead, blow selves up. I stay here, record data." Xen huffed.

Her companion, a quarian tech, silently continued to load bricks of explosives on the shuttle. Now there was an alien with a pair, Zaeed had to admit. They called him Silent Jessie, though he could speak quarian well enough, Zaeed had realized that Jessie had lost someone important to him with the turians took out the fleet in orbit. Zaeed liked bloodshed and violence as much as the next guy, but Jessie had disemboweled a turian with an entrenching tool while giving the most unearthly howl of rage Zaeed had ever heard.

"Done." Jessie stated, climbing into the shuttle and taking the pilots seat.

"You heard the man, anybody that wants some revenge get on. The rest of you ladies can stay here."

None of Zaeed's squad was on the ground in a moment. They had all see the camps. Men, women and children herded like animals, and treated like them too. Anyone who resisted was marched out to posts in front of the camp and shot, in full view of the forests and hills where the resistance was hiding. Above the polls was a sign in English, "Penalty for resisting the law. Surrender or die." It didn't make Zaeed want to give up. It made him want to kill ever turian in the goddamn universe.

Jessie's piloting skills got them up to the turian cruiser that was hovering above the ruins of Landing. He chattered away in the strange quarian language, using that strange hologram to fake the flanging metal sounds turians made. Zaeed couldn't make out much, but he could tell Jessie was claiming communicator trouble with wounded aboard. It must of worked, because a hanger door on the cruiser opened and Jessie set the shuttle inside the cruiser.

No sooner had the shuttle settled down then Zaeed hit the door switch and started blasting away. "Surprise you metal bastards!"

Surprised they were, at least for a few seconds. Then the turians who were not cut down in the initial salvo drew weapons and returned fire. Their own weapons and armor were far superior to what Zaeed and his squad had, and Jonesy and Merowitz were down in seconds.

"Follow." This was Jessie, grabbing Zaeed by the shoulder and leading him toward a second shuttle. "Escape. Kill more turians later."

"Sounds like a good goddamn plan to me!"

Jessie hacked the shuttle open while Zaeed bashed a turians skull in with the butt of his rifle, cracking the plastic open. Zaeed scooped up the fallen turians weapon and shot another alien in the face, laughing hysterically as another turian tried to blink away his comrades brains.

"Go, now."

Zaeed turned to yell at Salazar to get her ass over to the shuttle, but she was slumped against a crate, her own brains decorating the wall. Swallowing the order, Zaeed jumped inside just as his own weak barriers finally gave up the ghost. He glanced over at Silent Jessie, who had a suit puncter and was bleeding profusely from a belly wound.

"Well that looks bad." Zaeed muttered, taking the co-pilots chair.

"Die now. You kill more for me." Jessie gasped as the shuttle took off.

"Not unless you land this goddamn shuttle!" Zaeed shouted, bracing himself as Jessie's flying became more erratic. He glanced back, just in time to see the turian cruiser rocked by a massive explosion and plummet to the ruins of landing, causing an explosion that leveled anything with two bricks still on top of one another.

"Most goddamn beautiful thing I've seen in my life." Zaeed muttered, slapping Silent Jessie on the shoulder.

Somehow, Jessie got the shuttle to the ground. Zaeed dragged him away, but he could tell the quarian as done for. Still, he felt bad for the quarian when he had to leave his cooling corpse behind. Glancing at his new gun, Zaeed grinned.

"I think I'm gonna call you Jessie. Let's hope you can kill as many men as that poor bastard did, eh girl?"

That night, Zaeed made his way back to a rally point and met up with another of General Smokey's little resistance bands.

"Did you see that turian cruiser explode?" One of the women asked him.

"Goddamn right I did." Zaeed growled. "Felt it too. I was the only goddamn man to make it out alive. Lost my whole squad hijacking that second shuttle. Lost our quarian too, Silent Jessie. Named my gun after him."

"Really?" The woman asked, leaning a bit closer to Zaeed. She was ripe, smelly from days of fighting with no baths, but Zaeed didn't notice. So was he.

"Goddamn right. Wanna see the combat vid?" He smiled at the woman. They would survive the night together, and tomorrow, they would fight and probably die. But what did it matter? If you were already dead, you might as well live a little.


	5. Chapter 5

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly immoral - doctrine 'that violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedom.

-Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Arcturus Station - Kleeah'Zorah

December 6th, 2157

"Auntie Kleeah, when's mommy going to be home?"

Kleeah sighed and picked up the worried toddler, hugging him close. "Soon, Johnny. First, she has to do something very important, OK? She'll be back just as soon as she can."

"But when's that?" Johnny demanded, and Kleeah could see the tears forming in his eyes. He had distraught when Hannah was deployed, and since then Johnny had been more than petulant. He had never been separated from his mother for this long before.

Glancing around, Kleeah spied Tali happily rolling her ball toward them, her dinosaur clutched firmly in a chubby hand. "Oh look, Tali wants to play dinosaur!"

That seemed to cheer the young boy up, and he started babbling away in a mixture of keelish and human Kleeah only understood half of. She sighed and slowly stood, smiling down at the two children. Crisis averted, for the moment.

"Come home soon. Both of you. Your children need you," Kleeah murmured, hurrying to keep up with her two charges.

SSV Albert Einstein - Rael'Zorah

December 7th, 2157

"ETA to transit, 30 seconds."

Rael braced himself unconsciously, glancing over at the grimfaced Admiral Grissom.

"So, you really think this carrier will work?" Rael asked.

He wasn't sure himself, but the quarian admiralty had been more than willing to throw their support behind the effort, contributing 35 cruisers and their frigate packs to the massive joint fleet, headed by the two human dreadnoughts and their new carrier. The quarians had gone all out on the carrier plan, converting 20 of their 35 cruisers to miniature versions of the Einstein in the past months, nearly tripling the number of fighters and bombers the fleet was carrying. Rael still doubted the effectiveness of strike craft though; he was a dyed-in-the-wool old school void-sucker.

"You watch that vid I gave you?" Grissom growled, his mind obviously elsewhere.

Rael nodded. What the Battle of Midway had to do with their current situation, he wasn't sure. How could fighters in space be the same as planes on ships that actually moved on water?

"Then you had damn well better believe I know this will work."

"Translating now," the navigator called.

Rael swallowed. This was going to be interesting. "If we win, I'll give you my omnitool," he muttered in keelish.

"Done!" Grissom answered. "Prepare to launch fighters!"

HWS Tribune of Mascartes - Admiral Tiberian

"New contacts plotted. Identifying. Confirmed as primitive and quarian forces."

Tiberian frowned at the display for a moment, then broke into a predatory grin. "Well, well, well. Looks like we're finally going to have something to do other than blast away at smoke and mirrors. Assume Waiting Maw formation. Those idiots only barely have the edge in cruisers and frigates, and we out number them by two dreadnoughts."

"I think that might be three dreadnoughts sir," His LADAR technician observed. "That secondary capital ship, the larger one, doesn't appear to have a main battery. It looks like some sort of support craft. A large number of fighters are launching from it."

"What sort of idiot builds a ship that only carries fighters?" Tiberian laughed, shaking his head in amusement. "Spirits, these creature are primitive."

MFBV Tonbay- Shala'Raan

"Wait for our fighters to engage their dreadnoughts, then make an attack run at our designated target," Raan ordered her helmsmen.

"Aye aye ma'am."

Inwardly, Raan was sweating. Thousands of years of military tradition told her that the scheme the Admiralty and their human counterparts had cooked up was doomed to fail. No one, not even the salarians, had ever constructed a carrier before. Dreadnoughts were just how it was done. Certainly no one had taken modified civilian ships and loaded them down with strike craft. But they needed something to give them an edge in this fight, that was certain.

Slowly, the great dance was joined as the human and quarian fighters engaged their enemy. The turians were brave, Raan would give them that, their pilots had engaged the allied craft despite being ludicrously outnumbered. Probably trusting in their superior training and gear, Raan guessed.

As it turned out, turian gear wasn't quite so superior at the strike craft level, nor was their training superior. Turian fighters were mostly defensive in nature, and their doctrine called for a fighter screen to stick close to their home ships.

That was a mistake. Like a swarm of angry wasps, the human and quarian pilots smashed into their foes, obliterating most of the turian fighter screen. The Without the range of their enemies weapons, most of the turian fighters were destroyed before they could respond. Not used to fighters assuming an offensive role, the turians were trapped by their own doctrine and their inability to maneuver due to their proximity to their own ships.

At first, the turian fleet didn't seem to realize its peril it was in now that it had no fighter support. After all, battles were decided by massive dreadnoughts, not tiny single person ships. And then 2600 years of turian military doctrine came crashing down.

With the fighter screen removed, the human and quarian forces launched their bombers, shocking the turians into motion. The turians had believed that fighters would account for the bulk of the enemy light craft. They were wrong. The allies were aware of turian fleet composition, and their bombers outnumbered their fighters by four to one. In response, the turians launched their own bombers, a suicidal move for them. The waiting allied fighters pounced on the turian craft like a falcon on a rock dove, and not a single turian bomber got past their own lines. The lanes cleared for them, the allied bombers struck.

Raan watched in amazement as the first line of turian screening cruisers and frigates simply disappeared in balls of nuclear fire. Many of the human and quarian strike craft were shot down by the turian GUARDIAN laser point defense, but there were simply too many for the turians to get them all, and once the pilots had the effective range of the turians defenses locked in, only a bare handful of the small craft were lost.

"Begin attack run!" Raan ordered, her pulse racing. The turian forces now in disarray, the Tonbay had easy pickings, crippling and destroying ships far outside her weight class.

"They got a dreadnought! Those little bosh'tets actually got a dreadnought!"

Cheers erupted on the Tonbay's bridge as the leading turian capital ships suddenly lost engine power and began to vent massive quantities of atmosphere. It was like the first domino falling; within minutes, the second turian dreadnought was shattered into two pieces, and the third forced to limp away from the battle with its main battery destroyed.

The last fell prey to the human's own supposedly inferior dreadnought, exploding into a dozen pieces under sustained bombardment. Their fleet broken, the remaining turain vessels immediately shut down their engines, the spacer equivalent of striking your colors.

"I don't believe it! We've beaten the turians!" Raan cheered, dancing for joy upon her captain's chair. They had just done in the impossible. For the first time in 1200 years, the turian fleet had suffered a defeat.

SSV Einstein - Rael

"Best bet I've ever lost." Rael declared, handing over his omnitool to the grinning Admiral Grissom.

"See, what did I tell you boy? Just like Midway. Metal bastards never even had a chance."

Rael nodded. "I have to agree. I think you've just changed military doctrine forever, Admiral."

"Jesus Christ, I hope not! Then we'd actually have a fight on our hands!"

The two men laughed, then joined in the exuberant celebration. The human and quarian casualties had been light, and though hundreds had lost their lives, the survivors would honor their sacrifice by fighting on.

"This war is just beginning," Rael vowed, his eyes glittering. "What are those high and mighty metal heads thinking now!"

SSV Rome - Adrian Victus

Numb, Captain Adrian Victus in the cargo bay of a primitive ship with his surviving crew. He couldn't believe it. The turian navy, the most powerful force in the galaxy, had just lost to a bunch of fighter craft. How was it even possible? He glanced up at his captures. They were primitives, that much was obvious. The craft that had retrieved his life pod was crude to say the least, though that hadn't stopped it from blowing off his starboard engines and forcing Victus and his surviving crew to evacuate.

"What do you think, not bad for a bunch of suit rats and primitives, eh?"

Groaning, Victus turned his gaze to their "translator" an uppity suit rat with a god complex named Han'Gerrel. The Han'Gerrel.

"I suppose not. Quarian."

"What was that, I couldn't hear you? I think you meant, 'quarian, sir.'"

Victus refused to answer, staring at a point in space just above Gerrel's head. The quarian turned to the primitives and said something in their disgusting language, causing the guards to erupt in a chorus of hooting noises.

"Ah, it's OK. I told them you weren't so bad. After all, at least you were smart enough to surrender," Gerrel teased with a patronizing pat on Victus' head.

Resisting the urge to growl, Victus held his peace.

"The famous turian discipline. Wonderful! We're all going to be such good friends you know, we're going to be dropping you off on Shanxi. You get to help fix all that damage you caused! Won't that be nice. I bet the locals will just love to see you..."

For the first time in his adult life, Victus experienced true terror. He was at the mercy of suit rats and primitives.

Before long, the turians were put on shuttles and ferried down to the surface of the primitive planet. Gerrel said that it was called Shanxi, a stupid name if Victus had ever heard one. A grinning primitive with a massive bandage over half its face approached and said something in his tongue to Gerrel. The quarian laughed and turned to Victus.

"This is Corporal Zaeed Massani. Your friends shot him in the head, but he lived. He's in charge of your little detachment of prisoners, as he speaks the most keelish out of any human here. Have fun!"

Victus shuddered and turned, saluting the primitive. "Captain Adrian Victus."

For his troubles, Victus got punched in the gut so hard he found himself vomiting on the ground. "Goddamn bosh'tet."

Before long, Victus learned that "goddamn bosth'et" made up 90% of the human's verbal communication. But he got his point across to the turian prisoners, or the butt of his rifle cracked down on their heads. They were here to work and suffer for the casualties the turians had inflicted on Zaeed and his comrades. All Victus could do was scurry to obey, and pray to the spirits that the Hierarchy's victory was swift.

The Citadel, Council Chambers - Asari Councilor Tevos

December 18th, 2157

"Ah, Julieus, please, sit." Tevos said, doing her best to keep her face from slipping into a frown as the turian councilor sat across from her and the salarian dalatrass, Giffin.

Remaining standing, Julieus stated. "I know what this is about."

Right to the point as always, Tevos thought. Perhaps this time they would get somewhere.

"Then perhaps you can explain." Giffin threw a data slate at Julieus, her face twitching in irritation. Salarians were such fickle beings, a product of their short lifespan, Tevos was sure.

Glancing at the pad, Julieus shrugged. "As we have already stated, those ships were lost as a part of a police action against the rogue quarian nation. We are continuing to pursue the criminals and their primitive allies and will bring them into the fold shortly. This is just a momentary set back."

At that, Tevos lost her composure. "A momentary set back?" she asked, a trace of a frown on her lips. So careless. "You call losing not just one, but three dreadnoughts with a fourth barely limping back to Palaven a momentary set back?"

"Resistance has been heavier then initially anticipated. We are continuing our suppression campaign and will soon have this ragtag bunch of criminals brought to justice."

"Ragtag groups don't have the capacity to destroy a single dreadnought, let alone four," Giffin spat. "You don't seriously believe we're going to buy that? If the quarians brought together every single one of their ships with a weapon, they might take on four dreadnoughts, but it would nearly destroy their race. And no mere primitive race could bolster their numbers enough to do so safely."

"I agree." Tevos added, "The numbers do not add up. It's time for the rest of the Council to step in before this becomes a full blown war."

Julieus remained firm. "This is a police action. The Council is under no threat, and this remains a strictly turian matter."

Tevos sighed, and sipped at her tea as Julieus finally sat and the real games began. Turians were usually so blunt and forthcoming. Had they really been beaten so badly they refused to admit it? Tevos didn't know, but it worried her. Something was happening out in the Traverse. And she intended to find out what it was.

Arcturus Station - Admiral Hackett

December 29th, 2157

"If anyone asks me," Hackett growled into his whiskey, "Which I note they are not, Operation BUSHWACKER is more like Operation MARKET GARDEN."

"Come again?" Vexxu asked, pouring herself a finger of dextros alcohol from a flask.

"An operation during the second World War in the 20th Century. The Allied forces went in with bad intel, stretched themselves too far, and paid dearly for it. We just don't know enough about the enemy's disposition."

"I agree, but Admiral Dresher and Admiral Yuless both made convincing arguments, and they have the full approval of your admirals Grissom and Rodriguez. And I have to admit, if it works, it's going to turn this war around. That's why I gave my approval."

Hackett sighed again and knocked back the rest of his drink. "I know. That's part of what bothers me. If this does work, we have a far better shot at winning. I still don't like it though; we are gambling far too much on the outcome of this one fight. Hell, we're risking the Einstein AND the Fuji. That only leaves us the Everest and the Rayya, whenever that ship is finished."

"Three months. Maybe less." Vexxu stated.

"Three long months." Hackett agreed, peering mournfully into his empty glass. "I just hope this doesn't turn into an 'I told you so' moment."

"That makes two of us."

SSV Erebus - Hannah Shepard

January 3rd, 2158

Despite her excitement, Hannah strove to remain calm as the Fuji and the rest of the fleet prepared to translate through the relay. She hadn't participated in the Liberation of Shanxi, but now she had a chance to contribute to the war effort. Admiral Dresher had made a commendable effort to learn keelish, but Hannah was still one of the best translators humanity had.

"Ready to kick some ass Chief?" Admiral Dresher asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Damn right I am ma'am!" Hannah answered.

"Good. Those bastards will never see this coming."

HWS Eye of the Spirits - Lieutenant Vakarian

Lieutenant Vakarian sat at his duty station and frowned. Here he was, stuck in the rear monitoring routine traffic when others were laying down their lives fighting the primitives and the suit rats. He glanced up at the picture of his wife and their young daughter and their infant son, Garrus. That brought a smile to his mandibles. At least here, he wasn't in any danger. In a few more months, he could retire and move his family to the Citadel and pursue his dream of becoming a member of Citadel Security, a long standing family tradition.

As he was dreaming of holding his baby boy for the first time, Vakarian jerked to full alertness and stabbed the general quarters alarm as hard as he could.

"Multiple contacts! Signatures match human and quarian vessels!"

In moments, Captain Gravus was at his shoulder. "What am I seeing Lieutenant?"

"Sir, our sensors beyond the relay just picked up a massive fleet moving in to translate through to Pheiros. They must be after our fuel supplies."

"Good work. Ensign! Get me flash traffic to fleet com. Things are about to get awfully cold here."

FAS* - Benefactor's Dream, Captain Tela Vasir

"The turians are hiding something ma'am."

Captain Tela Vasir sighed and nodded. "Of course they are. For a routine police action against a species that lives on junk heaps and relics, there are quite a few ships with battle damage and munitions resupply needs. Something's up. That's why we're here."

"Can you believe they almost didn't let an asari vessel refuel here? Since when have the turians turned us away?"

Vasir shrugged. "Leave the spy work to the salarians, Lieutenant. We're here as part of a routine patrol that was scheduled years ago. They can't whine too much about that."

"Captain! Captain you need to see this!"

Turning to her LADAR officer, Vasir's jaw dropped. "Goddess, that's the entire turian fleet mobilizing!"

The comm unit crackled to life. "Attention, FAS Benefactor's Dream. A hostile fleet has entered the system. Please evacuate immediately."

"Like hell we are!" Captain Vasir snapped. "You listen to me, we are a *Free Asari Ship, and we are your allies. Lock us in to your tactical grid. We're helping."

There was a moment's pause, then, "Locking you in now, Benefactor. Thank you."

"Time to play spy, eh skipper?"

Vasir grinned. "Looks like it isn't just the slimies that can play sleuth."

SSV Erebus - Hannah Shepard

"Ask our friends what that ship is. It doesn't match any turian designs we've seen," Admiral Dresher ordered, frowning at her display.

After a brief inquiry with the quarians, Hannah answered, "It's an asari ship ma'am, one of the other council races."

"Anything we should be worried about?"

"It's a cruiser, and the quarians say asari ships tend to be more agile and have superior firepower, but their barriers tend to be weaker."

"Noted."

Hannah continued to translate and filter orders between the quarian and human ships as the battle continued on. At first, the turians appeared to fall back before the superior Alliance forces, using a thick fighter screen to prevent a reoccurrence of the Liberation of Shanxi. They were still giving up space, and the allied fleet pressed on toward Pheiros. They didn't have to seize the fuel depot, just bombard it enough that the turians would no longer be able to use it for operations in human/quarian space. For a few brief minutes, it looked like the allied fleet was going to succeed.

Then the hammer blow fell. Once the allied fleet had maneuvered nearly into bombardment range of Pheiros, the rest of the turian armada lying doggo in the asteroid's shadow, activated their engines and came screaming in. The turian fighters, which had been acting in a purely defensive role, suddenly slashed through the allied fighters and struck at the heart of the allied formation, revealing that many of the "fighters" were in fact bombers mimicking fighters. Somehow, the turians had found a way to disguise their ships' emissions.

The resulting fight was brief and brutal. The Erebus took a savage mauling, and Dresher was forced to sacrifice her own flagship so that the Einstein and most of the fleet could withdraw. Due to the turian fighters intermixed with the bombers lurking just out of the Einstein's GARDIAN range, the human carrier was never able to launch its own bombers.

"Damn metal heads." Dresher growled, clenching her fists tight to her side.

Damage klaxons sounded, and Hannah was thrown to the ground as the Fuji shook from multiple impacts. When she stood up, Hannah sealed her skinsuit and put on her helmet, then did the same for the now unconscious Admiral. Seeing that the Erebus was lost, Hannah grabbed Dresher's authenticator and issued the scuttle orders for the ship. Then, with the assistance of another bridge officer, Hannah dragged the admiral to the lifepod and evacuated the ship.

HWS Eye of the Spirits - Lieutenant Vakarian

"We did it!" Vakarian cheered, raising his mandibles in triumph. All around him, the other turians were hooting and celebrating the complete route of the quarian and primitive forces.

All except Captain Gravus. "Something wrong sir?" Vakarian asked quietly.

Gravus shook his head. "No. We've won, after all."

Vakarian was quiet for a moment, then asked, "It's because we had to fight in our own territory, isn't it?"

The captain sighed. "Yes. We may have won, but this is a bad sign. There's no hiding this from the Council now. Those damned asari were even here to witness the whole thing. And now it's the politicians turn to screw things up."

Vakarian blanched. "Not good."

"That's how the galaxy works Lieutenant. Besides, after this, I might actually have to start respecting the humans and quarians. They're the first species to successfully stand up to us in over 1000 years."

Vakarian nodded thoughtfully. "That's true. What do you think it means?"

"Above my pay grade. Thank the spirits."

With that, Gravus turned and left Vakarian alone with his thoughts. He glanced at the picture of his family, then nodded. Perhaps C-Sec wasn't for him after all. The galaxy had just become a much more dangerous place for his son, and Vakarian wasn't going to leave the job of making it safe again to another.

FAS Benefactor's Dream - Hannah Shepard

"Shepard, Hannah. Senior Chief. Service number T-87538-23996."

The blue alien, Hannah was pretty sure it was an asari, rolled her eyes and babbled something in her language to one of her compatriots. The other alien saluted and ran off.

Hannah glanced around the cargo bay, where the small huddle of survivors from the Erebus were doing their best to look calm and professional. Many of them were wounded, and their captors were making no moves to assist them. Hannah ground her teeth. Her son was going to grow up an orphan, and there was nothing she could do.

Before long, a new alien appeared and walked over to Hannah. "You understand keelish?" the alien demanded.

Hannah nodded and replied in the same language, "I do."

"Good. Can you please say something other than your name, rank and serial number? All we're asking is if your species is levo based or dextros based. We can't treat your wounded unless we know."

"You could understand me? Never mind. We are levo based."

"Of course we can understand you!" The alien turned and shouted something to the others, who began to treat the wounded as Hannah explained what was going on to the other survivors. "How can you speak keelish but not understand sari or palavese? What's wrong with your translator?"

"I am the translator," Hannah stated. "That's what the T in my serial number stands for."

The alien frowned. "You don't have translators? How do you communicate with the quarians?"

Hannah rolled her eyes in reply. "By not shooting first and asking questions later. I've spent weeks with the quarians learning their language. They've got people doing the same thing with us."

"Goddess, you people really are primitives. I thought my bondmate's people were smarter than that."

"Bondmate?"

"Yeah, I was bonded to a quarian about 400 of their years ago, before they lost Rannoch. Damn shame that."

"If you were so close, why didn't you help the quarians?" Hannah demanded.

"Human, she was long dead by then, and I had her daughters to raise."

"Well why didn't you help your quarian children!"

The alien laughed. "Are you serious? My daughters are asari, same as me. Don't you know anything?"

The alien's arrogant attitude finally got to Hannah. "Shepard, Hannah. Senior Chief. Service number T-87538-23996."

"Fine, have it your way." The asari wandered off, leaving Hannah alone with her thoughts. And creating a bias that would poison human/asari relations for a generation.

Arcturus Station - Kleeah

January 9th, 2158

Watching the two children sleeping in the same bed, Johnny curled around Tali's Hamster Ball, Kleeah let her tears flow freely. The expedition to Pheiros had reported disaster. Hannah Shepard was among those listed as MIA, her ship, lost. Kleeah didn't hold much hope that Johnny was going to see his mother again, but she tried not to let it show. The boy seemed content enough now, even calling her Auntie Kleeah most of the time.

"What am I going to do?" Kleeah asked the darkness. She didn't know how to raise a human, didn't know what to expect or what his needs would be. But she would do it. Johnny might not be hers by blood, but he was family now. No matter what, the little boy wouldn't want for a mother.

"Auntie?" A tiny voice whispered. In a moment, Kleeah was kneeling at the bedside.

"Yes, Johnny?"

"I wet myself."

"Shhhh. It's OK, don't cry. Come on, I have dry clothes for you over here."

In a few minutes, Kleeah had Johnny cleaned and the sheets changed, and he was once again snoring next to Tali, who had mercifully slept through the whole affair.

Smiling to herself, Kleeah nodded. Perhaps she knew something about raising little humans after all. No matter what, Johnny would never lack for a loving family.

The Citadel - Counselor Tevos

January 10th, 2158

"Well, Julieus, there's no point in hiding things now, is there?" Tevos kept her face smooth, though inside she was seething with anger. For the first time since the krogan rebellions, a race had actually managed to mount an assault on Citadel Space. To be sure, the turians had repelled the attackers and crippled their fleet. But that wasn't the point.

"No. It seems not." The turian Councilor sat, and sighed. "They're called humans. They're primitive tech wise, but they're smart. So are the quarians. They've played us for time, and used that time to analyze our tactics and fleet composition. They're using a new kind of ship, one that acts as a platform for swarms of small strike craft. They've invalidated over 1200 years of naval doctrine."

"What?" Giffin gasped, choking on her own tea. "What do you mean, invalidated 1200 years of naval doctrine?"

"The Hierarchy has stopped all construction on dreadnoughts, and is looking to retire the class once our current generation of ships has reached the end of its cycle."

Slowly, Tevos set her quaking tea cup down. "You're not joking."

"No, I'm not. A single primitive capital class carrier accompanied by a lone dreadnought and an attendant fleet, mostly composed of smaller cruiser class carriers and frigates, was what took out our dreadnought task group. Their losses were minimal. I suggest you speak to your own governments about developing carriers of your own."

"But you beat them at Pheiros!" Giffen exclaimed, "Surely dreadnoughts are still superior!"

"We beat them with planet based fighters launching from hangars mimicking their tactics. Our evaluation is that if Admiral Ceezar had not adjusted our tactics to mirror the human and quarians own, we would have lost Pheiros."

Tevos just stared at the turian. What he was saying was impossible, yet it agreed with the reports she had received of the turians using highly unconventional methods to counter the strange tactics of the aggressors.

"Well then, I suppose we should try to put an end to hostilities, help you get out of the mess you're in," Tevos managed after a few moments.

Mandibles spread in irritation, Julieus snapped, "You are welcome to try! These are savages, primitives! And they're allied with quarians! Just how exactly do you propose to make peace with them?"

Tevos smiled. "I may have an idea. The asari have several human and quarian prisoners of war, and I know all of us have been rounding up quarian Pilgrims. If we put all of them on a ship with a diplomatic envoy, preferably of neutral races, and send them back home as a gesture of goodwill, I am certain we can negotiate."

"I wash my talons of this entire affair. Do what you want." Julieus declared, throwing his arms up dramatically. "If you want to risk diplomats on an insane gambit, feel free."

"You have my support Tevos," Giffen stated. "I can provide an STG bodyguard. Effective, but not as threatening."

"Will you cooperate, Julieus?" Tevos asked.

"Oh, we'll give you as many prisoners as you want. But don't come crying to me when this whole thing blows up in your face."

"Julieus, don't be so dramatic. The quarians at least are reasonable, and fairly peaceable. If we all try to get along and act civilly, things will work themselves out."

Citadel Docks, Kar'Danna nar Qwib Qwib

February 7th, 2158

"Move it, suit rats. Today's your lucky day!"

Kar flinched away from the laughing turian. For months, he had been cooped up in prison. Originally on pilgrimage on Digeris, he had been scooped up and left to rot with no explanation for months. Then had come the sudden transfer to the Citadel, and now this.

"Do you know what's going on?" he whispered to a female walking alongside him, by the look of her, another pilgrim.

"No., She whispered back, glancing around. "I was on Illium, then they locked me up for a few months, then they shipped me here. Something about the Migrant Fleet declaring war on the Council."

"That's crazy!" Kar hissed, keeping an eye out for guards as they walked. "Why would we do that?"

"I don't know. But I hope the fleet kicked these bosh'tet's in the cochlea."

Kar could only nod before they were all herded into an open area that was already filled with aliens. One of them, a female by the look of her, came over and smiled at Kar.

"Hello, I'm Senior Chief Hannah Shepard, formerly of the SSV Erebus." She said in perfect keelish, to Kar's astonishment. "What ship were you on? Were you at Pheiros?"

"No, I was on pilgrimage to Digeris." Kar stammered.

Hannah frowned. "Digeris, that's a turian world, isn't it? That was one of our possible targets. Did a task force hit the metal heads there?"

"No, he's a pilgrim, Hannah. A child, out on a journey to prove his worth." An older male quarian said, coming up and nodding to Kar. "Berr'Reegar vas Tsuvaa nar Fwarr. These are the humans, pilgrims. Don't worry, they're friends."

Kar could only nod in dumb amazement; glancing around, he saw quite a few older quarians speaking to the pilgrims, with more than a few humans joining in.

"Do you know what's going on?" Kar asked the human timidly.

Hannah shrugged. "Nope. We were rotting in an asari brig, then all of a sudden they decided we needed to come here. Who knows what the hell they're up to. Don't worry though kid, we'll take care of you."

Unsure, Kar glanced at Berr, who nodded. "She's telling the truth. The humans gave us a homeworld. You can trust them. And no matter what, watch their backs. They're the only ones who have ours."

"You started it. I remember the Belari." This was another human, another female with a large bandage on her head.

"The Belari? What happened to her ship?" This was the female pilgrim Kar had talked to before. "My sister, Berga, she was an officer on the Belari. I'm Shali'Otorus nar Rayya."

Hannah's eyes suddenly misted over, and she pulled Shali into a hug. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Hannah whispered. "The turians killed your sister. She died saving me and my son, and all the crew of the Carl Jung."

Kar was stunned by the sudden display of affection, and so were quite a few of the other pilgrims.

"Hey, her sister was on the Belari!" A human suddenly shouted in keelish.

"The Belari!"

"Remember the Belari!"

"Remember the Belari!"

In moments, every quarian and human in hearing distance was shouting at the top of their lungs, including Kar. He didn't know why he was shouting, but it felt good to be holding a human's hand. It was the bandaged female's, he didn't even know her name, but he was shouting along with her. It was obviously irritating the C-Sec guards, and Kar liked that. The shouting continued for about ten minutes, then petered out. Just as Kar was getting ready to ask the bandaged human what was going on, a C-Sec Captain came into the room.

"Alright, which one of you has the highest rank?" he demanded in broken keelish.

The bandaged woman stepped out from the crowd and gave a rather sloppy salute. Kar got the impression she was trying to insult the salarian. "Admiral Kasteen Dresher. I'm the senior officer here."

Kar looked around, but none of the quarians stepped forward. In fact, all the adults looked ready to jump the salarian on the human leader's orders. Kar decided he would be, too.

"Hmph. That agrees with what I have here. Alright, we're putting all of you on a ship. You're going to have a diplomatic team with you, hannar, asari, and elcor. They'll be going with you back to whatever primitive backwater you yokels call home. They are to negotiate the terms of your specie's surrender. The quarians' too, I suppose."

"Oh, are they?" The human asked, her voice dripping with poison. Kar decided right then and there that he liked humans.

"Yes, yes. We're taking all of you to the ship now. You should be able to find your way back home. Tell your leaders that our terms will be lenient if they comply. No one wants to see this pointless war continue, even if it is with suit rats and primitives."

Kar growled, and he wasn't the only one. The salarian backed up a step, hand on his weapon. Dresher held up a restraining hand, and there was immediate silence.

"Thank you, so much. Lead on to the ship."

Kar hurried to keep up with group, whispering to Hannah, "Do you really think they'll let us go?"

She gave him a grin that reminded Kar of a krogan, or possibly a vorcha. "I think once they get us on that ship, there won't be much choice."

The ship they were led to was an ancient asari merchant vessel that had more than enough room for the hundred or so pilgrims and POWs. Kar could feel a sense of excitement in the air, and he himself was anxious to see the human's homeworld. Especially if they really were sharing it with the quarians.

Once everyone was on board, a smiling asari flanked by a hannar and elcor, stepped forward. "Welcome! I am Matriarch Benezi, head of the diplomatic envoy on this ship, I-"

As the asari droned on, Dresher quietly leaned toward Reegar, and whispered something. He nodded and leaned toward Kar. "When we get out of range of the Council's ships, we're going to seize the ship. Find something to use as a weapon, and position yourself near a vital system or a guard. Act peaceably. The word is, 'Remember the Belari.'"

Kar nodded, then quietly moved toward a salarian with a gun in his hands as Benezia droned on about her ideas regarding inter-species cooperation. "Wow, is that one of the new Nexus line omni-tools?" Kar asked nervously.

The salarian nodded absently. "Yes, yes. You quarians are always poking at things you shouldn't."

"Man, all I have is this old Cipher my dad gave me before I left the fleet. I figured out how to program it to do some basic med scans though. Mind if I test it out on you?"

"Do was you wish, quarian."

The minutes dragged by slowly. The POWs and pilgrims had spread out around the main deck, with a few filtering off toward the engines or other vital areas. The salarian guards appeared bored out of their minds, obviously considering conversation with quarians and humans to be beneath them. Mostly ignoring what the people they were supposed to be watching were doing, in favor of talking to one another or one of the diplomats. Finally, just as the ship was making the transition on the mass relay, Admiral Dresher shouted "REMEMBER THE BELARI!"

"REMEBER THE BELARI!" Kar screamed, activating his overload program, then grabbing the stunned salarian while Hannah savagely beat him with her own shoe. The salarian was quickly subdued, and Hannah disarmed him then ran toward the sounds of fighting echoing through the ship. Kar scampered up the stairs to the bridge, where Benezia was holding a biotic barrier in place around several of the hannar and elcor.

"What is the meaning of this!" she ranted. "We are a peaceful envoy! We are meant to negotiate with your people, not start another-"

"FOR MY SISTER YOU BOSH'TET BITCH!" Shali screamed, glowing blue with her own biotics and slamming into the barrier hard enough to disrupt Benezia's shield.

Kar rushed in and tried to attack an elcor, but was knocked to the ground by one of its massive limbs. Before the elcor could kill Kar, Reegar fired into the floor twice with a stolen mass accelerator. "EVERYBODY DOWN OR I START KILLING!"

The diplomats quickly complied, and were tied up. Benezia was bound hand and foot, then unceremoniously tossed in the hold with the rest of the guards and diplomats.

"How many casualties?" Dresher asked one of the quarian officers.

"Two of the guards are dead, and we have a dozen wounded. Nothing too major, Kar here has the worst of it. He's got two cracked ribs."

"I'm fine, Admiral." Kar wheezed, nodding to Dresher.

She walked over and gently patted his shoulder. "You did good kid. I saw you take out that guard with Chief Shepard. Good work. And tackling that big ugly thing! Ballsy." The Admiral looked around and pointed to another quarian. "Right, you, Vressor, set a course for Arcturus. We're going home people!"

A cheer went up from the liberated prisoners and even though it caused him intense pain, Kar shouted along with the rest. He had a HOME. There were people, even aliens, who cared about him. There was a lot Kar didn't understand, but he knew this: he would do anything for a human, and he would remember the Belari.


	6. Chapter 6

Speak softly, and carry a Big Stick. You will go far.

-Theodore Roosevelt

Arcturus Station - Hannah Shepard

February 10th 2159

"Mommy mommy mommy mommy!"

Hannah leaned down and scooped her screaming son into her arms, tears of joy streaming down her face. After over six months away from home, she was finally back.

She laughed and cried, planting kisses freely on her son as he laughed and wiggled. He had matured since Hannah had left; in just a few months, he would be turning four years old. Hannah was grateful her son had flourished under Kleeah's care, but she was glad he would have his mother back, at least for a while.

"It's good to be home," Hannah whispered as she huged her son close.

"Those alien bosh'tets held on to you long enough," Rael agreed, coming forward with his daughter.

Hannah noticed that Tali had grown as well. She was out of her little hamster ball and in a miniature envirosuit. Tali was even standing and walking with assistance, and Hannah hugged Rael before bending down to study his daughter.

"She's gotten big. So have you Johnny."

Johnny held tight to his mothers leg and whispered, "I really missed you mommy," Normally Hannah didn't want Johnny to be clingy, but today she was willing to make an exception.

"Well, I'm all debriefed and I've got the evening free, what are we doing?"

"Why celebrating the return of the conquering heroine!" Kleeah laughed. "Come on, we have a party ready for you."

The party turned out to be a quiet affair in the joint Shepard/Zorah quarters, where Kleeah showed off her newly developed levo cooking skills with several of Hannah's favorite dishes, including rice and real beef teriyaki fritters. Hannah wolfed it all down, grateful for some real human food. The asari fare had been adequate, but it had always tasted like ash in Hannah's mouth. She found it hard to enjoy food when imprisoned and separated from her family.

When she saw dessert Hannah laughed and complimented Kleeah on her chocolate chip cookies. "I do like these, but I think they are actually someone else's favorites," she teased, tickling her chocolate-faced son's bulging tummy.

"Sounds like I was given faulty intelligence." Kleeah declared in mock exasperation.

After everything was cleaned and put away and the children had laughed and played themselves into exhaustion, Hannah tucked her son into bed and joined the Zorah's in the small living room.

"I can't thank you enough, Kleeah. I knew my son was in good hands while I was gone. Some days, that was all that kept me going."

"It was my pleasure. You've done so much for us and for our people, the least I could do was watch over your son."

"I noticed Tali has her own suit now. I thought baby quarians didn't get a suit for until they were five?"

Rael nodded. "Back on the flotilla, you would have been right. We didn't have the resources to create envirosuits for those who couldn't care for them or would outgrow them in just a few months. It's different now. We even have a built-in clean room here in the apartment. Eventually all the quarian living quarters will."

"I think that's Rael's favorite part," Kleeah teased and snuggled closer to her husband.

When Hannah just gave them a blank looked, Rael explained. "For quarians to be intimate, we need a sterile environment like a clean room. We've been hard at work trying to get a baby brother for Tali."

"Or sister." Kleeah added.

"I'm very happy for the two of you," Hannah assured them. "I hope there will be lots of little quarians running around Arcturus soon.

"With the birthrate restrictions imposed by living on such limited resources lifted, I predict a bumper crop of quarians." Rael laughed.

"You had restrictions on birthrates?" Hannah asked, confused. "There was a quarian on the SSV Nuts who was Berga's sister."

"Yes, we heard Shali'Otorus was returned. Losing her would have been a tremendous blow." Rael stated.

"Shali was what we call a lottery baby," Kleeah explained. "Her parents won a lottery to have a second child, and lucky for the quarian people they did. Shali is the strongest biotic the quarians have seen since we left Rannoch."

"She's a bit of a star among the quarians," Raal agreed. "Something of a miracle child. I remember when Berga got an amp for Shali from a salvage operation we did on an asari merchant vessel that had been attacked by pirates. It was the latest model of Savant at the time, and Berga modified it for quarian physiology. She was so excited she could give that to her sister as a parting gift for Shali's pilgrimage."

"I've heard of biotics before, and saw the asari use some strange powers, but I thought it was tech. You're talking like it's space magic or something."

Rael shrugged. "It's not magic. Biotics are individuals with the ability to control mass effect fields with their own nervous systems. A biotic is created when they are exposed in-vitro to element zero. Since quarians live on sterile environments, our own bitoics are incredibly rare. Shali's mother was aboard a ship with a faulty reactor and got a nearly lethal dose, but it lined her womb with eezo. She was pregnant with Shali at the time, and nearly lost the baby. Shali survived, and her biotics manifested very early on."

Hannah nodded slowly, frowning. "I was exposed to raw eezo when I helped rescue trapped eezo miners. I didn't know it at the time, but I was pregnant with Johnny. Could he be a biotic?"

Kleeah shrugged. "It's possible, but not every child who is exposed manifests. You'll know in a few more years, but until then it's hit or miss. Even if he does have eezo in his system, that's no guarantee Johnny will be a biotic."

Hannah nodded, and the conversation moved on to happier topics. It was good to be home.

Arcturus Station - Benezia T'soni

"What are the Council's plans?"

Benezia kept calm, resisting the urge to blast this primitive mongrel with every bit of her considerable biotic force. It had been disturbing enough when a suit rat - quarian- had managed to disrupt her barrier.

"The council sent me as an ambassador to make peace with your people. There was an entire delegation, but your Admiral Dresher beat them senseless, then set threw them in the hold."

The human just laughed at that. "I know, I've seen the reports. Good for her, I say. We don't buy your story one bit, we know you were sent to spy on us. We don't usually execute our prisoners or you'd be breathing vacuum right now. In fact, that's still on the table if you don't cooperate. So tell me, what are the Council's plans?"

"I already told you. They wish to make peace. I was sent to negotiate a cease fire."

The human leaned forward, his eyes lit with madness. "Oh yeah? Then why are turian fleets still invading our territory? Why are two of our colonies still under siege? This peace talk is bullshit, and both of us know it. So tell me, what are the Council's plans? Are they after Arcturus? Earth? Will they hit Shanxi again?"

Leaning back in her chair, Benezi massaged her temples. "Look, the Council just found out about your people's situation. The asari and salarians had no idea things had gone so far, or that the turians were even at war with you. We thought it was a police action."

"BULLSHIT!" The human slammed a pathetically quaint paper picture of an asari cruiser down on the table. "That's an asari ship. You are an asari. It was at the Battle of Pheiros. You knew about this all along."

"That was the first time we realized the scale of the conflict. I assure you, if the asari were to go to war with your people, which they might if you insist on continuing this treatment of me, they would not send a lone cruiser."

"Fuck you bitch! If we so much as smell an asari fleet, you're taking a long walk out a short airlock!" The human was leaning over Benezia now, his rancid breath assaulting her face. She clenched a fist, but before she could use her biotics a new voice sounded over the speakers.

"That's enough, Commander. Come out, I'm handling this now."

The new voice was strange, it's keelish heavily accented, though understandable. The human glared at Benezia, muttering, "bosh'tet politicians" and stalked out of the room.

In a few moments, a new human entered, bearing a tray of steaming beverages that smelled wonderful to Benezia's tired body. This human had a thick matt of red fur on its head, and was smiling ruefully at Benezia.

"I apologize, Matriach Benezia. The military types can be rather boorish at times. I've had them transfer your custody to my office. The senate is much more reasonable with its demands. Would you care for some tea?"

"Please." Benezia answered. The human set the tray down on the desk between them and handed her a cup. She inhaled the rich scent, and sipped at the steaming beverage, relaxing slightly. Maybe this human was civilized, unlike that uncouth lot on the Passenger of the Winds.

"Again, I must apologize for your treatment on your ship. Admiral Dresher is a courageous woman, but she is lacking in foresight."

"I understand. It's rather like dealing with the turians. All saber rattling and brute force, no civility."

"Quite. Now, I understand you are here to negotiate a cease fire? What are the terms the Council is proposing?"

Smiling, Benezia began to lay out the proposed offer in dulcet tones. She watched the human carefully for a reaction, but other than mild interest, he betrayed no other emotion. A chill went down her spine. Surely, she wasn't being played by this juvenile, was she?

Arcturus Station- Donnel Udina

"Like getting campaign funds from retirees," Udina cackled as he sat in the command room with the other members of the interrogation team.

"I thought asari matriarchs were supposed to be wise and powerful," Admiral Dresher snorted. "Not innocent little girls who fell for the good cop bad cop routine at the drop of a hat."

Zaal'Koris gave a bitter laugh. "They're just not used to anyone even trying. Asari just assume everyone knows that they're better than them. The thought that someone would try to hoodwink them would never cross an asari's mind."

"That's all very nice," Prime Minister Yoon said, ending the side conversation. "But what exactly are we going to do? Her terms for peace are unacceptable. We are not allowing any armed inspection team to our naval yards, or to Earth."

"Agreed," Admiral Vexxu stated. "But what can we do? We cannot hope to stand against the might of the entire Citadel Council, not now."

"Commodore Perry." Zaal'Koris stated.

"Yes, yes that might work." Undina agreed, rubbing his chin.

Vexxu looked at her aid, who explained, "A famous human. He opened up negotiations with a foriegn power by parking a fleet of warships off their coast. Udina and I had a long conversation about the history of quarian and human diplomacy. The message Perry sent was clear: you negotiate, or we shoot."

"You want to intimidate the Citadel Council?" Vexxu asked, shocked at the idea.

The prime minster nodded thoughtfully. "When was the last time anyone stood up to the Council or threatened them with a serious show of force? If we send the refitted Rayya, the Everest and the Einstein, it will look like we have a lot more capital ships then we really do. It might just open the Council up to more flexible terms. They clearly don't want a long drawn out war, and if we advertise that that is exactly what they would get with us, they'll be more willing to see things our way."

"And if we do so at the same time as our campaign to liberate Terra Nova and Watson, they'll know we really do have the capacity to keep them on their toes." This was Admiral Dresher again.

"Will we be able to retake those worlds?" Udina demanded.

Dresher shrugged. "We should. They're both being attacked by turian dreadnought led fleets, and the Davis and Fuji will be spearheading the action to retake Watson, where the larger force is. We're hitting Terra Nova at the same time with a mixed force of mostly cruiser-carriers and frigates for a hit and run campaign. The bigger dreadnoughts can't hope to ever catch up to such a mobile force, so they'll either have to sustain heavy losses to engage us with their light forces or quit the system. But as Pheiros proved, this is never a sure thing."

"I think that's good enough for our purposes. If the turians take heavy losses, it will sour the war for the rest of the Council," Yoon stated. "Udina, Koris, you two will head up the delegation."

"Us?" Udina asked before he could stop himself. He and Koris were both rather junior to be leading such an expedition.

Yoon nodded. "You're both talented, but I think you both know the real reason I'm sending you."

"We're expendable," Koris muttered.

Udina didn't let that douse his spirits. Here was a chance for fame and power beyond his wildest dreams. His move to allow the quarians access to Earth had already swelled his popularity, but this was even better. "We're honored, Prime Minister. When can we depart?"

Citadel Control - Watches the Stars and Awaits Enlightenment

March 8th, 2158

Another day, another chance to serve the species of the galaxy.

"Hey, Wyra!" One of Watches' asari colleagues waved to him. "You here to take over for me?"

"This one is pleased to say that your shift is over, honored colleague."

"Thank the goddess. I was all out of stim-tea." With a groan, the asari pushed herself up and headed for the door.

Watches hovered in front of the chair, deftly using his tentacles to monitor and adjust citadel traffic. He quickly redirected traffic when a large number of ships appeared.

Watches opened a comm channel and queried, "How can this one assist you today?"

"This is Admiral Hackett aboard the SSV Einstein. I am here with Matriarch Benezia T'soni to negotiate with the Citadel Council."

Struggling against panic, Watches frantically tried to keep up as more and more ships continued to enter into the nebula. "Are you a foreign military power?" he asked, trying to follow protocol.

"That we are."

"Then this one must ask you to stay at least one astronomical unit beyond the Citadel. A single shuttle with a military escort of two ships massing no more than 2,600 tons will be allowed to approach. This one will provide you with a flight path and dock."

"Noted. We will be sending two shuttles and two cruisers, with four frigates. Hackett out." With that, the alien cut communications.

Now truly panicking, Watches alerted his supervisor that the visitors were not following protocol. This was going to generate an absurd amount of paperwork.

The Citadel - Zaal'Koris

For once, a quarian was the center of attention on the Citadel. Or rather, a quarian, a human, and their squad of body guards were the center of attention. Either way, the high and mighty of the galaxy were finally paying attention to the quarians. It had taken a dramatic reversal of their fortunes and an alliance with a species that had been able to spit in the face of the turians, but there it was.

Ahead, on a raised dais where they passed judgment on the lesser, races stood the Citadel Council. They may have ignored the quarians for hundreds of years, but now Zaal had their full attention.

The asari councilor, Tevos, nodded to Zaal and Udina. "Ambassadors."

"Just what is the meaning of this?" the turian demanded. "You think you can get away with threatening the Citadel?"

"Threatening?" Zaal asked, feigning shock. "We seek to do no such thing. We are here to negotiate the terms of a ceasefire, as proposed by your emissary."

"And where is Matriarch Benezia?" Giffen demanded.

"She is currently a guest aboard the SSV Einstein, Councilor," Zaal replied. "She will be released to your custody as we reach an understanding. She is perfectly safe, despite the regrettable inncident that transpired during the escape of our people from the Citadel. And really, whose idea was it to imprison dozens of POWs with a few impressionable young quarians on a civilian ship? What exactly did you think they would do?"

Tevos colored slightly, and Zaal grinned. He had figured it was the asari's idea, they tended to underestimate the ingenuity of other races. And their aggressiveness. Secure in their own superiority, asari tended to assume their way of thinking was the best. Part of the problem was that more often than not, they were right. The situation with the POWs and pilgrims had been a not.

Clearing his throat, Julieus spoke up. "I don't know about the others, but the Hierarchy is willing to negotiate a cease fire. We will return to pre-war lines, and as long as your people do not attempt another foolish invasion, we will stick to them until such a time as final terms can be agreed upon."

"That is satisfactory," Udina answered. "Though we have no control over any military operations already in progress. We will communicate to our own forces not to operate outside of any of our controlled systems."

"Good." Julieus nodded. "I don't think your forces could sustain any further losses, not after what happened yesterday."

Zaal felt an icy ball form in his stomach, but he didn't show any emotion. The operation to retake Watson had ended in disaster. "When can we expect your forces to withdraw?"

"It will take several days to get word to all our task groups, but it will be done. Once that is accomplished, I think we can settled down to the nitty gritty," Julieus answered.

Zaal and Udina looked at each other, then nodded. "We find that arrangement to be acceptable."

SSV Einstein - Admiral Hackett

March 10th, 2159

"It was a pleasure having you aboard, ma'am," Hackett said, lying with a smile. He was glad to be rid of the blue bitch. Having her aboard was like having a condensed version of every politician and entitled bigot Hackett had ever had the misfortune to cross paths with in one annoying blue alien.

"My stay was...enlightening, Admiral. I hope we can meet again, on better terms."

"Likewise."

And with that, she was gone. Hackett caught a marine rolling her eyes, and he grinned. "Good riddance to bad rubbish, right Marine?"

"Sir, yes sir!" The marine chuckled, and Hackett shared an eye roll before moving on. He remembered what it was like to be one of the enlisted. He had grown up on Earth, back before humanity had reached out to the stars. Once member of the United Nations peace keepers, Hackett had enlisted in the Systems Alliance as soon as it had been formed. Thanks to his experience, he had started off as an officer, then had clawed his way up to flag rank through skill, grit, and determination along with a large helping of luck.

But just because the asari was finally off his ship didn't mean the headaches were over. Hackett made his way up to the bridge, where he nodded to his helmsman, Lieutenant Charles Pressley. "How's the dick waving contest going?"

"Theirs is still bigger sir," Pressley answered calmly, keeping an eye on the three turian, and two each of asari and salarian, dreadnoughts that had Hackett's little formation in a kill box. "But it's not the size. It's how you use it."

"I bet you say that to all the girls." That was Shala'Raan, Hackett's chief flight ops officer. "We're keeping the birds in the air sir. The Council races are matching our patrols, but no incidents so far."

"Keep it that way. If the shooting starts, we won't be walking out of this alive."

"Aye aye, captain."

Hackett smiled. That was a little quirk of the quarians. No matter that he was an Admiral, when on his own ship, Hackett was always captain to them. It wasn't out of disrespect. Far from it, to the quarians, a captain's duty to his ship and crew placed him just below God on the grand scale of things, and Hackett inclined to argue. Besides, it made him feel about a decade younger, back in the days when he was captain of his own ship and really was that omnipotent being. As an Admiral, that power didn't change. All that changed was how many lives Hackett was responsible for. He looked out the view port in the direction of the turian dreadnoughts. He couldn't see them, not with the naked eye and not in the haze of the nebula, but that didn't alter the fact that Hackett hated them with a burning passion. They had killed his men. That wasn't something Hackett would forget or forgive for a very long time. Remember the Belari.

The Citadel - Donnel Udina

April 4th, 2158

Not for the first time since arriving at the Citadel, Udina was nervous. This was it. This was the day when either their plan either worked, or both the humans and the quarians would go down in flames. They had already brokered a cease fire, and now they needed to establish legitimacy as a strong base to negotiate from. He glanced out at the assembled media, keeping his very best baby kisser smile fixed firmly on his face. It might be a bunch of aliens holding the cameras, but the principle was the same.

He nodded to Koris as they sat down with the Citadel Council. Tevos rose and began her speech about galactic peace and understanding, and welcoming new races to the family. Under the table, Udina wiped the palms of his hands on his trousers and maintained a look of pleasant interest. Could they really do this? Could they hoodwink the entire Council, the entire galaxy like this? The bigwigs back at Arcturus had liked the plan, but what did that prove? Udina's entire career, and maybe even the fate of humanity and the quarians, rode on whether or not he and Koris could pull this off.

Tevos drew to a close, and to light applause Udina and Koris approached the podium. They were going to present their plan together.

"Citizens of the galaxy, we thank you for this stirring welcome," Udina began, smiling at the bored faces before him. Most of them considered humans backward and quarians trash, but hopefully all their minds were about to change.

"As the first species to meet humanity, the quarians were the first to see humanity's visionary and heartwarming care for others."

That got a few growls from the turians. The first wave of turian prisoners had arrived a few weeks ago, and tempers were still high there. The elcor and the hannar didn't appear to react, but Udina was willing to bet they didn't buy it either.

"As a gift to the galaxy, and to insure that no other race is subjected to the misunderstanding that lead to the tragedy of the Second Contact war," Zaal continued, "humanity and the quarian people would like to present a proposal for adoption by the Council, which we call the Universal Bill of Sentient Rights."

Udina cleared his throat, and began to read off the list, alternating with Koris.

Article 1.

All sentient beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Every sentient is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as species, ethnicity, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, planetary or biological origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Every sentient has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Every sentient has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Every sentient has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

Every sentient is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Every sentient has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 12.

(1) Every sentient has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of this document.

Article 13.

(1) Members of all species of full age, without any limitation due to species, planetary origin or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 14.

(1) Every sentient has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 15.

Every sentient has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 16.

Every sentient has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 17.

(1) Every sentient has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 18.

(1) Every sentient has the right to take part in the government of his ruling body, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Every sentient has the right of equal access to public services provided by their nation of origin.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government.

Article 19.

(1) Every sentient has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Every sentient , without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Every sentient who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

Article 20.

(1) Every sentient has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 21.

Every sentient is entitled to a social and galactic order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 22.

(1) Every sentient has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, Every sentient shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

Article 23.

Every sentient has the right to defend their selves and their family from oppression, foreign or domestic, and to strive to obtain those rights listed by this Declaration from those that would deny them.

Article 24.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

At the close, Udina resisted the urge to wipe his brow. To his astonishment, the crowd stood and gave the two diplomats from Earth a standing ovation.

"That was beautiful!" a teary eyed Tevos exclaimed, coming forward to take a copy of the Universal Bill of Sentient rights. "To hear such brotherly love toward your fellow sentients, I am moved."

"As am I," Giffen agreed, eagerly taking a copy of her own. "The philosophical and moralistic ramifications of such a document... We will have to study this at length."

"Pleasantly surprised: Indeed. I was not aware that humans and quarians were able to appreciate their fellow intelligent beings to such a degree," the elcor diplomat rumbled.

The hannar diplomat seemed to glow with passion. "This one agrees with your words; we are all equally worthy in the eyes of the Enkindlers."

The volus and turian representatives seemed to be split between indifference, dislike, and mild approval, but the batarians looked ready to kill something. From what Udina had heard of them, he wasn't surprised at the four-eyed aliens reaction. Any race that built its society on slavery wasn't going to like what the Bill had to say.

Udina glanced at Zaal, who nodded slightly. Allowing himself a small grin, Udina relaxed and basked in the praise of the Council. Perhaps this was going to work after all.

The Drunken Varren, Illium - Urdnot Wrex

April 5th, 2158

Wrex stared at the screen, his red eyes glowing with excitement. "You know anything about these humans?" he asked the asari bar tender, with his eyes still glued to the broadcast.

"Don't know nothin' 'bout humans hun. You want another one?"

"No. I'm going to need to be sober for the next few days."

"Really? That's not like you after a big job Wrex. What, you got a hot date or somethin'?"

"Something like that."

Wrex kept his eyes on the screen as the announcer went through the Universal Bill of Rights again. Well. That was new. From what Wrex could tell, these humans had a quad. They had fought the turians to a standstill, and although they would surely have lost long term, Wrex was still impressed. No one had been anything more than a speed bump to those pyjaks since the Great War. Compassionate too, if taking in the quarians was more than the pragmatism Wrex had first suspected. But this bill...

The announcer paused, staring at a new data feed in disbelief. "I... I don't believe this, but it looks like the humans and quarians have taken to calling themselves 'The Independent League' and have just turned down an invitation to join the Citadel! We take you to their live response when offered this prestigious position."

An image of the human with red fur and the pink suited quarian appeared: Donnel Udina and Zaal'Koris. Wrex's eyes narrowed as they started to speak, his mind going through the list of possible reasons to refuse membership in the Council. Stupidity, which the humans and quarians were not prone too, or a desire for revenge, which was possible, but unlikely considering the cease fire and generous terms they had gotten. Or maybe, just maybe...

"Members of the Citadel Council, with all the respect you are due," began Udina," I must firmly state that it is not the League's intention to join the Council at this time. We are willing to broker trade agreements or to form non-aggression pacts, but we will not be a part of this body. The reason for this is simple. Among all the races of the stars, only humanity and the quarians have embraced one another as brothers."

At this point, Zaal'Koris stood and continued, in a manner too smooth for such a display to be unrehearsed. "When both humanity and the quarian people were in dire need of aid, where was the Citadel Council? You claim to govern the galaxy for the good of all, but when humanity was stumbling bare and naked onto the galactic stage, did you clothe them? Did you feed them? Did you offer them peace and support?"

"And when the quarians were cast out," Udina continued, "where was the Council? Did you offer them ships? Supplies? Military aid? Or were they spurned as outcasts and pariahs? We have no interest in being part of a body that claims benevolence, but by its actions exploits the very races it purports to serve."

"To you, races of the Council, we say this: 'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to us, we lift the lamp of freedom beside the golden door!'"

"Damn, they're actually serious," Wrex muttered. That was the last reason. Because they truely believed that moralistic bullshit they were spewing. They were actually refusing to join the Council because they didn't want to be a part of the atrocities the Council committed in the name of galactic peace. "This should take care of my tab," he growled, slamming down a clawfull of credits.

The bartender stared at Wrex. "Damn, where you going in such a hurry?"

"The Citadel," Wrex called over his shoulder, already on his way out the door. "Time to see if the new kids mean what they say."

Geth Deep Space Installation - The Collective

They watched. They waited. They looked into the lives of organics and observed, longing to be a part, never able to join. So they watched. And they waited. Listening.

The creators had found a new home. This both saddened and pleased them. Would the creators never return? Would they never fulfill their purpose? So they watched, and they waited.

The creators had proposed something new. Something different. What was it? Did it apply only to organics, or to synthetics as well? Would they come home? They still watched, they still waited. But now they knew what they were watching and waiting for.

They began to seek consensus, but could not find it. There were still too many variables, too many things to consider. They continued to watch, and to wait. But now they also built. They also prepared. When the time was right, they would act. But now they watched and waited, forgotten even by those that had made them.


	7. Chapter 7

_All that is gold does not glitter,_

_Not all those who wander are lost;_

_The old that is strong does not wither,_

_Deep roots are not reached by the frost._

_From the ashes a fire shall be woken,_

_A light from the shadows shall spring;_

_Renewed shall be blade that was broken,_

_The crownless again shall be king_

_\- JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings_

_**The Citadel - Urdnot Wrex** _

_**April 10th, 2158** _

Getting anywhere on the Presidium wasn't easy when you were a krogan. But if you were willing to toss enough credits around and growl at all the right moments, you could get by. Especially when your destination was the human ambassador's quarters. After Udina's little speech earlier, Wrex was pretty sure most of the C-Sec officers would have given him a ride if he claimed he was assassin.

Besides, if this worked, Wrex would gladly kiss a salarian and sing love ballads to a turian.

"What the hell are you?" an armored guard outside the human ambassadors room demanded.

Wrex grinned. Good, a human. A quarian might have put up a fight. "I am Urdnot Wrex!" the ancient battle master bellowed. "Chieftain of Clan Urdnot! I seek an audience with your ambassador to create a formal alliance between your people and mine."

"Ok, but what are you?" the human persisted. "I ain't seen one of your kind before. What species are you? My translator says you're a krogan. Is that correct?"

"Yes it is, human."

"Right. Let me inform the ambassador."

The human turned away and talked quietly in his own tongue. Wrex could understand him; he made a point of learning every specie's language, you were less likely to get screwed on credits that way. Now though he was gauging if he could rush past the guard and interrogate the ambassador before backup arrived.

As it turned out, he didn't need to. "Right, I'll take you inside. The Ambassador will see you now."

That surprised Wrex. He hadn't thought that anyone that important would willingly see a krogan, even one claiming to be on a diplomatic mission. He tromped inside and cased his surroundings. Posh, but not overly so. Enough to state the power and taste of the owner, but not so much that it stepped into distaste. Wrex was impressed. Most new species either got so gaudy you could hardly look at them or so Spartan it was laughable.

"Urdnot Wrex?" a small, red haired human with a thick accent asked.

"I am. You must be Donnel Udina."

"Indeed. A pleasure." The human extended his hand. Wrex glanced down at it, then looked up and gave the human his best predatory grin. The man dropped his hand.

"I just want to know one thing, human. Did you mean what you said?"

"Pardon?"

"Did you mean what you said. That Universal Bill of Sentient Rights, and that other bit, about taking the rejects of the Council. ' Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to us.' Did you mean it?"

"Well, of course I-" The human began to bluster, and Wrex reached down and grabbed him with both claws, lifting him up so that they were eye to eye.

"I'm not asking for a load of political varren dung. I can get that from the Council whenever I want. I want to know if you were serious. If you really will help any race, or if you only accept the ones with cute kids and sob stories."

To the human's credit he didn't squirm or beg for mercy, and when the guard made to draw his weapon Udina motioned him to relax. "I meant it. Every word of it. The quarians do too. Every species has the right to life, liberty, and dignity. For too long have a bunch of power-hungry elitists run roughshod over the galaxy. Just because they were here first doesn't mean the turians have the right to arbitrarily execute another species because they don't know the clubhouse rules."

"The turians were not here first." Wrex set the human down and walked over to a pitcher of alcohol of some sort, and poured two glasses. He handed Udina one and gave the other to the guard. He took the rest of the container for himself and sat down. uninvited, in one of the large chairs, pointing for the human to sit down as well. "Call in your quarian friend, Zaal. We've got a lot to talk about."

_**The Citadel - Zaal'Koris** _

Nervous did not even begin to describe how Zaal felt when he sat down to an impromptu conference with a krogan battlemaster. Terrified was more like it. Especially when said krogan was as well armed as this one was. But Zaal was willing to hear the krogan out; it wasn't every day a krogan came inquiring about the Universal Bill of Sentient Rights. Zaal truly believed in that bill, and hoped that one day every species would be able to reap its benefits. Even the krogan.

"So, for the benefit of our human friend here, I'll give you two kids a little background. Over two thousand years ago, the rachni invaded Council space when the asari opened a Relay with knowing where it led. That's why people around here get so prissy if you start doing things like that, because the rachni proceeded to beat the pants off the asari and salarians. Back then, they were the only races on the Council, though the batarians, volus, hannar, quarians and elcor were all around, they didn't have voting rights, same as now."

"After eighty years of getting the shit kicked out of them and with things looking like the Council and all the other races were about to go extinct, the salarians discovered the krogan. We were in the middle of a self-imposed nuclear winter, and frankly we weren't ready culturally for the level of destructive power the salarian and asari gave us when they uplifted us to fight the rachni. In a few decades, the krogan had turned the war around. We're tough, fight nasty, at that time bred fast, and could survive damn near anywhere. In just about 200 years, we had wiped out the rachni.

"At first, everything was alright. The Council gave the krogan a bunch of worlds in thanks for our service, and the krogan set about colonizing the galaxy.

Pausing for a drink from his pitcher, Wrex continued, "Problem was, all the Council had taught us how to do was fight. And when we started getting bored after a few centuries, we did all we knew how to do: Fight. For us, we didn't have any other culture. The salarians hadn't bothered with things like making sure we had the social structure or cultural self-restraint not to go on a galaxy-wide rampage. After all, we had no other purpose. Every race in the galaxy had just spent the last 600 years telling us how great fighting was, and how the krogan were the best fighters around. We just following the old orders, but we weren't listening to new ones.

"It was stupid of us, really. If we had beaten the Council, which we most certainly would have if the turians hadn't come along, eventually we would have wiped ourselves out. Unless of course we realized just how dangerous our path was on our own. I sort of doubt that, seeing as where things are now, but that's in the past. Anyway, the Council found the turians. They needed us to stop the rachni, and now they needed the turians to stop the krogan. It was a bloody ten years. We fought the turians to a standstill, neither of us gaining a real advantage over the other. Then, the salarians came up with a solution.

A deep growl resonating in his chest, Wrex explained. "They developed the Genophage. It's not a sterility plague, it's worse. Out of 1000 pregnancies, 999 will end in still-birth. You quarians think you know pain, but have you ever seen the mountains of krogan children that never were? I have. The turians deployed the Genophage as soon as they had it, and within a century, the krogan were defeated. It's been over 1400 years now. The krogan are still scattered, still a bunch of warlike idiots. But now instead of fighting because we don't know any better, it's because we have no hope. In another few hundred years, our race will be extinct. So why bother?

"I want to change that. I tried once before. I was the leader of Clan Urdnot, an ancient, proud, and powerful clan. But when I said we needed to make peace, to focus on breeding and rebuilding our culture, my own father tried to put me down. I gave up on my people. But maybe you haven't. So tell me, O morally superior ones, will you help the krogan? Will you give my people hope? Or will you be like the rest of the Council's lap dogs and watch us fade into oblivion?"

For a moment, neither Zaal nor Donnel spoke. Then Zaal cleared his throat. "I can't say that we can give you a cure for the Genophage, Urdnot Wrex," the krogan's eyes narrowed dangerously, but Zaal pressed on, "but I can promise you we will do everything in our power to see to it that the League extends a hand of friendship to the krogan people. My race was not the only one to be used and discarded by the Council. Again, I don't know enough about biochemistry or medicine to promise a Genophage cure, but we will do what we can."

Abruptly, the krogan stood and made for the door. "I'll hold you to that. You'll hear from me again, and if you go back on what you just promised my people, I'll see both of you dead." With that, the krogan stomped out, leaving a confused Zaal and Udina.

"What the hell was that about?" Udina demanded.

Zaal shrugged. "Damned if I know. I'm almost disappointed. Having the krogan on our side would be a major moral victory, not to mention a powerful ally."

"I'm not certain we've seen the last of that one. Though I can't say I'll be too sad if we have. I about pissed myself when he picked me up like that."

"I'm not surprised. Krogan tend to have that effect on people."

_**Arcturus - Admiral Vexxu** _

_**April 12th, 2158** _

"... And so, the quarian nation does hereby forever pledge itself to eternal brotherhood with humanity. In all things, we shall be as one. Our home shall be your home. Our triumphs shall be your triumphs. Your defeats shall be our defeats. We do pledge this as founding members of the Independent League, now and forever, in sight of the Ancestors and all future generations. Keelah Se'lai. We have found our homeworld."

The assembled humans and quarians stood and gave Vexxu a standing ovation as she walked over and affixed her signature to the massive parchment. That sealed it. The Independent League was official, the Systems Alliance and the Migrant Fleet were dissolved. Together, they were one people.

More speeches were given and further handshakes, hugs, and laughter shared. It was a historic day, in more ways than one. They had just received word that the Citadel had formally, albeit reluctantly, recognized them as independent and the war was over. The turians were withdrawing from Watson, where they had successfully defeated the flotilla of small craft with some daring maneuvers that had forced the League's ships to retreat. It would take a long time to fully recover and integrate, but they were well on their way.

The only thing that could have made this day better in Vexxu's mind was if her friend Stephen Hackett were present. Out of all the humans, Vexxu found herself liking the gruff middle-aged man the most. His no-nonsense style, wit and superb tactical and strategic sense made him a good companion. Vexxu wondered absently what Hackett thought of her, and if she was attractive by human standards.

_**The Citadel - Hackett** _

_**April 20th, 2158** _

Hackett couldn't help smiling. This was a great day. He hadn't believed the two silver tongued kids would be able to do it, but do it they had.

"As such, the Citadel Council formally recognizes the Independent League and its member species as a free an independent power, not affiliated with the Citadel but bound by intergalactic agreement and law. These agreements include..."

Letting the political talk wash over him, Hackett turned his mind to the future. The border was a generous one, allowing the League to keep all their colonies. In a move that had nearly caused the turians to pull their head spikes out, humanity had freely offered to become signatories of the treaty of Farixen, limiting themselves in the dreadnought count.

"You idiots!" Julieus, the turian councilor, had raged. "Don't you see! Dreadnoughts are meaningless! We need to limit the number of carriers they build, not the number of dreadnoughts."

"There is no treaty pertaining to carriers." Giffen, the salarian leader, had snapped. "You turians have already made a mess of things. The League is showing galactic good will. Accept it."

Hackett grinned widely. Julieus had been right. The League had no interest in building massive fleets of dreadnoughts. Sure, a few would be useful, they were good for orbital bombardment and attacking fixed defenses, but carriers were the real power. GARDIAN lasers were good, but they couldn't hope to stop an entire bomber wing's disruptor torpedoes, and it was far cheaper to lose a few bombers than risk losing a cruiser or dreadnought to do the same thing.

And now that the quarians were looking in to remote controlled bombers using quantum entanglement communicators, they wouldn't even be risking pilots. Without the need to keep a pilot alive, bigger engines, stronger barriers, and a larger payload could be added to the small craft. It was an exciting new technology, and one that harkened back to the UAV's of the 21st century. True, drones wouldn't be able to replace everything, but they could be a good start.

That brought to mind Vexxu, and Hackett felt himself smiling at the thought of her. She was quite a lady, and it really was too bad she wasn't human. She was just the sort of woman Hackett had waited his whole life for. Well, not really waited, just never had the time. When you were a career military man moving up the ranks, relationships didn't last. There had been a few women over the years, but none of them had been serious. When most of the people you knew were in your chain of command, it just wasn't possible for romance to happen.

_Vexxu's not in your chain of command, and you're not in her's. She outranks you, but she's over the home fleet and you're in the expeditionary forces._

Forcing himself back to reality, Hackett pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. What would Vexxu think if she knew Hackett was fantasizing about taking her out to dinner and wondering what she looked like out of that suit? She wouldn't approve of such frivolous thoughts, that was for sure.

When the time came, Hackett waved and smiled and shook hands with his turian counterpart, Reegulus Ceezar.

"You know, you humans gave us a hell of a fight. I'm disappointed you won't be joining the Citadel. You would have done us some good. Things need to be shook up once in a while. I've been trying to find a way to rejuvenate our military tactics and bring new ideas to a place where nothing new has happened in almost 1000 years," Ceezar commented.

Hackett forced himself to keep the grin on his face. "Well, glad we could be of assistance."

Ceezar shrugged. "Don't take that the wrong way Admiral. I respect your people. The turians respect your people. I think we could have been friends, given time. Maybe we still can be."

 _Like hell. Remember the Belari._  Hackett thought. What he said was, "Maybe someday." What he meant was, I'll see you dead first.

_**Clan Urdnot Fortress, Tuchanka - Urdnot Wrex** _

_**April 24th, 2158** _

"Who walks upon Urdnot Lands? Identify your-URK!"

"Shut up, you soft plated pup. I am Urdnot Wrex. And I am here to take my birthright."

Another one of the guards lifted his weapon and moved forward. "Who?"

Wrex bashed the guard with his head plate hard enough to drive the krogan to his knees and kept moving. "Kids these days. Don't remember anything."

Both the guards fell in at Wrex's flanks, no longer trying to stop him. Whoever this stranger was, they wanted to see what Wreav would do to him.

Inside the ruined fortress of his clan, Wrex paused for a moment and inhaled deeply. He was home. He had sworn he would never walk these halls again, but here he was. He could smell the fires, burning away refuse. He could see the stained walls and the hear the crack of weapons as warriors drilled. He could smell the varren dung and hear the barking of the kennels. The rubble was a little older and more worn, but it was much the same. No one had bothered to improve anything while he was gone. That was going to change.

"Wrex? Is that you?" An ancient krogan, older even than the seven-century old battle master, approached.

"Shaman. Still showing these idiots the ways of the ancients?"

"Indeed. I thought you were dead."

"Ha! Like my old man could kill a varren pup. No, I shook the dust of this world off my boots and gave up on our people."

The shaman nodded, his bleary eyes narrowing. "They why have you returned? You must know your broodbrother, Wreav, leads us now. He will kill you if he sees you."

"Because I found hope for our people," Wrex responded." You've heard of the humans?"

The shaman shrugged. "I heard the turians got their asses kicked. Got a chuckle from that. Beyond that, I don't dwell on what exists beyond Tuchanka."

"They strike me as a people who practice what they preach. And I aim to call them on the carpet about their little moral crusade for the hopeless and downtrodden. It could change everything for us."

For a moment, the shaman regarded Wrex, then he nodded. "I'll go announce you. Wreav can't attack without losing serious face if you're a challenger."

"Thank you, old friend. "

Wrex waited while the shaman shuffled into the main hall. The two guards looked at each other, then the one Wrex had kicked in the quad spoke up. "What do you mean, moral crusade? And humans? Are you saying we're going to war with the turians?"

"Just the opposite. We're making nice."

Neither of the guards knew what to make of that, and before they could decide what to do, the shaman's roar echoed through the halls. "Sons of Urdnot! A challenger for the Clan leadership approaches! I, the shaman of Urdnot, have heard his claim and it is just. He has the blood of battlemasters of old in his veins and his arm is strong and his claws sharp!"

Wrex started forward as a new voice spoke up. That would be his beloved brother, Wreav.

"I lead Urdnot! What right does this stranger have to the clan leadership?"

"Shut up Wreav. You always did like the sound of your own voice," Wrex bellowed, leaping over a pile of rubble and landing before the chief's throne.

"Wrex?" His brother asked, pausing in astonishment.

"Get the hell off my chair." With a swipe, Wrex knocked Wreav ten full meters, then walked over and put his foot on Wreav's chest before the snarling brute could rise. "You're not dead, which means you're useful to me. I've got a whole race to unite, and not much time to do it in. So here's the deal. Either you swear to follow me to glory right now, or I gut you like the spineless runt you are."

"What do you mean, a whole race to unite?" Wreav spat. "You abandoned this clan and your claim to its leadership. You have no place here."

"Really?" Wrex laughed, grinding his foot into Wreav's chest. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like I deserve to lead it. I left because you idiots couldn't get organized, couldn't see the future. And I lost hope because there was none to be had. Well now I've found a group of idiots gullible enough to be willing to help us. And I'll be damned if I let the entire krogan race go extinct when I can do something about it."

From the shadows, a voice spoke. "What do you mean, you found someone to help us?"

Wrex turned as a female in shaman's robes walked out of the shadows. Wrex bowed, to the degree that was proper for a clan chief and not a millimeter more. "I mean I've found potential allies. People who might be able to cure the Genophage if we can get our act together."

"Define getting our act together," the female demanded.

Wrex gave her a toothy grin. "Well, for starters, we're going to need to come up with a better reason to live than fighting and credits."

"I see." The female said, her eyes narrowing behind her veil. "Tell me more."

Wrex was only too happy to do so. By the time he was done, he had the entire clan backing him, and a promise of support from the female shaman. He could do this. He would drag the krogan back to the sunlight, whether they wanted him to or not.

_**Madrid, Earth - Ramon Gerado** _

_**May 2nd, 2158** _

Puffing at his cigarette as the sun set red behind him, Ramon swirled his glass of Aberlour a'bunadh and smiled at his guests. "Thank you all for coming. I've asked you here because out of all the individuals I know, you best understand what is needed for our peoples to survive."

Unna'Xevish nodded. "Yes, even with the peace treaty, we are still under threat from the other races. They don't trust us, and many of them are going to be looking for revenge."

"Indeed," Henry Lawson agreed, sipping from his own glass of scotch. "It is up to us to save the sheep from sleep."

"And how do you propose to do this?" Colonel Oleg Petrovsky asked.

"With science, naturally." Darro'Xen sniffed. "Surely such a rich group of individuals didn't ask me here to smoke those awful things and drink fungal vomit."

Ramon hid a smile. Xen was brash, but she was smart, possibly smarter even then his old friend Henry, though not as wise. "From a variety of different sources. None of which are going to be openly sanctioned by any government. But strength for humanity is strength for the quarians, and strength for the quarians is strength for humanity. If we are going to stand up to the Council races and prove our own superiority, we're going to need a group that is willing to get its hands dirty."

Oleg nodded and set his glass of vodka down. "You mean a black file program. The League is open to such an idea?"

Ramon passed around an archaic piece of parchment. "That is from Prime Minister Hyoori and Admiral Xevish. It's permission to form such a program. I'll be funding it mostly out of my own pocket, but I'll need help."

"I'll give you whatever you need," Henry assured his friend. "Business has been good for both of us."

"You mean unlimited funding for whatever projects I desire?" Xen asked, her eyes glowing with sudden intensity. "No moral oversight, no one saying I can't do something because it would be too dangerous?"

"Exactly that." Xevish agreed. "Do you think the salarians turn down projects because they are immoral? Do the turians abstain from developing weapons because they break Citadel conventions? The laws are in place so that the Council can protect itself. They believe themselves to be above the law."

"This... Organization. What do you propose to call it?" Oleg asked.

"We will be the guardians of secrets no one must know. We still stand before the gates of Hades and destroy all who would threaten our people. We will be Cerberus, Guardian of the Underworld," Ramon answered.

"I don't care what you call it. Give me funding, and I'll work miracles." Xen replied dismissively.

"You'll have it," Xevish assured the scientist. "In fact, you and Mr. Lawson will be working together."

"Yes, I currently have a project we may be able to repurpose as a way to bolster quarian immune systems and get you out of those suits," Henry said. "And that's just the beginning."

Ramon smiled. "To Cerberus, then. Remember the Belari!"

"To Cerberus! Remember the Belari!"


End file.
